Investors to tackle Koos Bekker over Naspers pay policy
The crux of the issue is Naspers’ extraordinary good fortune in its Tencent investment
Shareholders, including Allan Gray, will be squaring up to take on Naspers chairman Koos Bekker over the company’s lax remuneration policy at Friday’s AGM, even as one analyst lamented that their objections to how Naspers’s executives are rewarded are "futile". Allan Gray portfolio manager Simon Raubenheimer said "we have voted against the remuneration policy for the past two years and haven’t seen any improvement". The crux of the issue is Naspers’ extraordinary good fortune in its Tencent investment – the source of this year’s 43% gain on the stock market and the single largest contributor to Naspers’ profit. Without Tencent — of which Naspers owns 34% and over which it has no managerial control — Naspers’s earnings have slumped from $298m in 2015 to a loss of $214m in the year to March. Video entertainment, for example, went from a profit of $732m in 2015 to just $287m in 2017. According to Naspers’s 2017 remuneration report, CEO Bob van Dijk, who joined Naspers in 2014, achieved...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.