Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the afternoon of September 18, Beijing time, it is reported that Prosus, a well-known technology investment company listed in the Netherlands, is one of the major shareholders of Chinese Internet giant Tencent. On September 18, Prosus and its parent company, South African newspaper Group (Naspers), announced that Bob Van Dick (Bob van Dijk) would step down as chief executive of both companies.

The two companies announced that Ervin Tu, the current head of investment, will serve as interim chief executive of both companies. Two years ago, Tu joined Naspers and Prosus from Softbank Corp. Group. He was in charge of mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs.

The two companies did not announce the exact reason for Van Dick's resignation, but the timing of the change coincided with the removal of cross-shareholding structures by Prosus and the South African newspaper Group.

During Van Dick's tenure, Prosus went public in 2019, and then during the global COVID-19 epidemic, many technology stocks such as the Internet soared, and the share price of Prosus soared. Since then, however, Prosus's share price has been mediocre, and Van Dick faces a huge capital market challenge: the market capitalization of Prosus and the parent company, South African newspaper Group, is a huge gap compared with the market capitalization of its important asset, Chinese Internet giant Tencent.

Prosus currently owns 26% of Tencent, which has a market value of up to $387 billion at current share prices.

In the future, the important task facing Prosus and the South African newspaper Group is to solve the problem of "serious asset discount" compared with the market value of Tencent equity assets.

After the COVID-19 epidemic, the share prices of Prosus and the South African newspaper Group also fell as the share prices of some Internet companies pulled back.

Recently, Prosus was forced to sell some of its shares in Russia (once the company's most attractive asset) at a discount, and the value of these assets has been affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

According to reports, Van Dick has been the head of the South African newspaper group since 2014 and has also led Prosus since 2019. After resigning as chief executive, Van Dick will serve as an adviser until September 30 next year, according to statements from the two companies.

The two companies said that in the future, the strategic objectives of the entire group will not change, and the various plans formulated in the past still need to produce practical results.

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