3 Min Read
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Investors in Naspers Ltd - Africa’s biggest company - said on Thursday they want proceeds from a $14.7 billion stake sale in its Tencent Holdings investment to go towards blockbuster acquisitions or a share buyback.
FILE PHOTO: Naspers logo is seen in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 9, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo
Naspers’ Dutch-listed subsidiary Prosus NV sold a 2% stake in the Chinese gaming and social media giant on Thursday in the world’s largest-ever block trade, reducing its stake to 28.9%.
Prosus’ portfolio is dominated by Tencent, which owns China’s biggest messaging app, WeChat.
Bob van Dijk, chief executive of both Naspers and Prosus, said on Thursday the stake sale created the financial flexibility to go for mergers and acquisitions, continue its on-going share buyback programme and explore other ways to create shareholder value.
Naspers investors want big deals, share buyback after Tencent windfall
yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Naspers investors want big deals, share buyback after Tencent windfall
metro.us - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from metro.us Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
GameStop rally crash calms JSE
11 Feb 2021
Backlash: Demonstrators gather outside the New York Stock Exchange building to protest against trading app Robinhood amid GameStop stock chaos. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency)
The retail investor-driven rally in United States equities that cost hedge funds more than $20-billion has come to an abrupt end. This signals the end of fears that the Reddit-inspired surge in equities would spread to the JSE.
Financial market fears that the Reddit forum WallStreetBets would inspire a surge in equities as retail investors ploughed into South Africa’s most shorted stocks initially seemed to have some validity as the JSE All Share index climbed to an all-time high aided by equities such as Steinhoff.
MONEYWEB
app instead? 00:01
Open:
Open:
Itâs difficult to know whether the lack of disclosure on the JSE contributes to the limited shorting activity on the market. Image: Shutterstock
As the dust settles and the GameStop share price plummets back towards earth it becomes evident thereâs little chance of similar drama playing out in the South African market now or any time soon.
Not that there isnât a large number of potential retail investors who wouldnât like to ‘stick it’ to powerful institutional investors. But the fact is that although South Africa is ahead of many emerging markets when it comes to short-selling, the local market is not active or robust enough to support the type of frenzied trading that saw GameStopâs share price rocket from around $40 to just below $400 in less than a week.