Publishing group Naspers` sale of 15% equity to black investors in its publishing arm includes its online presence in portal 24.com and its Internet publishing sites, which fall under wholly-owned subsidiary Media24.
The sale, the second Naspers announced in two days, follows yesterday`s conclusion of the MultiChoice deal to black economic empowerment (BEE) investors for R2.25 billion.
In terms of the Media24 deal, BEE company Welkom Yizani will buy 14.6 million Media24 shares, out of a total of 97.3 million, for R730 million. Welkom Yizani has been set up specifically to purchase the shares and then resell them onto the general black public.
It will resell its shares at R10 each and Naspers will receive 58 million Welkom Yinzani shares in return.
The net effect of the deal is that black people purchasing the Welkom Yinzani-held shares would only have to fund 20% of the value of the shares and so would purchase a R50 share for R10.
Consolidation strategy
While some of Naspers` titles are well known, such as Drum, Finweek, and newspaper titles such as Die Burger, the 24.com portal is relatively new to the stable. It is part of a strategy to consolidate complementary digital properties to create a useful Internet destination for consumers, Naspers says.
Beverly Branford, head of Naspers investor relations, says the deals of today and yesterday only include South African-based assets. She refused to comment on whether more BEE deals could be in the offing. This means yesterday`s satellite TV deal includes stakes in all Naspers` electronic divisions, such as Internet service provider MWEB, but excludes the Chinese instant messaging venture TenCent.
Similarly, both deals exclude stakes in the Brazilian publishing venture that Naspers has engaged in.
The Media24 deal with Welkom Yinzani also includes other Naspers subsidiaries such as book distributor Via Afrika and education company Educor.
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MultiChoice in R2.25bn BEE deal
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