Two deals announced in the past week suggest Tencent’s meteoric share price rise of the past few years may not slow down in the foreseeable future. If that is the case, the Naspers board should brace themselves for continued shareholder demands that they unbundle this phenomenally valuable asset. The Tencent share price has shot up from 123 Hong Kong dollars ($15.73) in January 2015 to the current 469 Hong Kong dollars due to outstanding performances on a number of fronts. Inevitably, given Naspers’s 33% holding, Tencent’s surge has dragged the South African media company’s share price along with it. But not all the way. The rapid increase in the Tencent share price has opened up a multibillion-rand discount to net asset value (NAV) in the Naspers share price; a discount that looks set to widen in the months ahead. Naspers has said there are no restrictions on its holding in Tencent but not everyone is convinced. There is a suspicion Naspers has little say over Tencent’s strategy or...
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