The Raith Foundation, like so many other South African investors, is enormously lucky to have been a shareholder in Naspers for the past 19 years. This period has covered most of Naspers’s life as a listed entity. In that time, we have watched as the management of this vibrant media and entertainment company settled in to the listed environment; we were there when the dotcom bubble threatened its early confidence in that environment and we have certainly enjoyed the breathtaking returns from its investment in Tencent. At the time we bought into Naspers, we were aware of, and accepted, the contrived control structure that allowed a relative handful of parties to control 68% of the company’s voting rights. In 2005, the control structure was made even more impenetrable in the wake of a hostile bid by Jannie Mouton of PSG, but we accepted the assertions by Koos Bekker, then the CEO, that the group’s various partners, in particular the Chinese owners of Tencent, needed to be sure Naspers...
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