South African multinational media firm Naspers is reportedly considering buying a stake in an internet group based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that owns the Middle East’s largest e-commerce website, Souq.com.
Dubai-based Al Jabbar Group may sell partial stakes in some of its eight companies, including Souq.com, according to its chief executive Samih Toukan.
Toukan set up Al Jabbar after selling Arabic-language internet website Maktoob.com, the largest portal in the Arab world, for about $165m to Yahoo! in 2009.
According to Toukan in an Arabian Business report, the Al Jabbar group has subsequently raised capital of $60 million. He says the value of stakes in the company, therefore, could be in the “millions”.
Arabian Business, though, has further reported that Naspers could be one of the interested investors.
Naspers, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), has branched out internationally in the last decade, buying up stakes in tech and media firms across the globe.
The South African multinational has a 34% stake in China’s Tencent holdings, which recorded a profit at the end of 2011 of $1.6-billion.
However, Naspers has neither confirmed nor denied the Arabian Business report that it is looking to buy a stake in Al Jabbar.
“It is our company policy not to comment on press speculation,” Meloy Horn, head of investment relations for Naspers, told ITWeb Africa.
Naspers, though, does already have investments in the Middle East. The multinational media firm has an equity stake, through its wholly owned division MIH, in one of the Middle East’s largest classifieds and community website Dubizzle.com, which is also based in Dubai.
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