Naspers CEO, Bob van Dijk, and a few other executives have offloaded R1.9 billion worth of stock

The CEO of Naspers has let go of a huge amount of stock. Bob van Dijk sold his Naspers stock after the media conglomerate announced a buyback scheme.

Van Dijk sold R1.72 billion worth of stock.

Purging his stock has divided the market, and many question whether the sale was acceptable.

BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS

It should be noted that in June 2022 media giant Naspers said that it was allowing an open-ended share buyback program for Naspers and Prosus.

The new program would help close the gap between the shares’ net asset values and the price at which they are trading, according to Daily Investor.

According to Van Dijk, “we expect the programme to significantly increase the net asset values per share for Prosus and Naspers.

Van Dijk argued that the buyback program was created to designed increase net asset value per share.

Investors could essentially take advantage of Prosus’ and Naspers’ trading discounts.

CRITICISM

Van Dijk is not the only person that was offloading their shares. Naspers CFO Basil Sgourdos also sold his shares.

Sgourdos made two sales, one valued at R6.4 million and another at R92.4 million, according to the Daily Investor.

In addition, Mark Sorour and Steve Pacak, two other directors within the company also relieved themselves of their shares. According to Daily Investor, Sorour sold R15.4 million worth of stock. Pacak sold R149 million worth of stock.

DISGRACEFUL

Asset Management executive director and portfolio manager Piet Viljoen said these moves did not sit well with many other industry players.

Viljoen said, “Directors of Naspers are selling large chunks of shares while the company is in a buyback program. Have they no shame?”

According to the asset manager, it is never a great sign when a number of company executives offload their shares during a repurchase programme.

He also argued that if management at Naspers were really concerned about creating shareholder value they would be more transparent and unbundle their Tencent stake. This would therefore provide investors with a more of an accurate value of the holding.

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