GIULIETTA TALEVI: How Trump’s WeChat ban is squeezing SA’s pensions
Because of the large share Naspers has in Tencent, which developed the social media app, the White House’s move is likely to influence other stocks on the JSE as well
US President Donald Trump’s anti-China exertions may seem a world away but, unfortunately, they will likely have an effect on every single SA pensioner or investor, simply because of the importance of Naspers to our local market.
If you haven’t been following the news, the US last week aimed at Chinese tech champion Tencent, of which Naspers owns 31% and to which the SA company owes its incredible stock market success of the past 19 years. Essentially, the Trump administration announced it would bar “people and property within US jurisdictions” from carrying out “transactions” with WeChat (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/business/trump-china-wechat-tiktok.html) and TikTok (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/technology/tiktok-trump-microsoft-bytedance-china-ban.html) – two Chinese-owned apps – after 45 days. Naspers immediately felt the heat, its stock falling 4,1% on the JSE last Friday before recovering part of that...
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