Naspers’s discount remains hefty
The argument about capital outflows from SA, as advanced by the media giant, no longer provides a plausible explanation
Even though foreigners have been pouring money into South African stocks in early 2018, Naspers’s discount to net asset value has continued to grow. In December, Naspers’s management attributed the hefty discount — about 40% — to capital outflows from SA and the inability of South African institutions to fill the gap, partly because of Naspers’s heavy weighting in local indices. But that argument no longer holds. Capital outflows turned to inflows in early December as expectations grew that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa would be named the next president of the ANC. That trend has been sustained thanks to growing confidence in the ruling party’s ability to turn itself and the ailing economy around. Foreigners were net buyers of local shares to the tune of R15.4bn in the first four weeks of 2018. That compares to net outflows of R14.8bn a year before. Owing to a 5.1% fall on Tuesday, Naspers’s shares are flat so far in 2018, meaning that the group continues to materially underperfo...
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