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New CEO for Naspers amid e-commerce restructuring

By , Editor, ITWeb Africa
South Africa , 24 Feb 2014

New CEO for Naspers amid e-commerce restructuring

The e-commerce lead of Africa’s largest internet and media firm Naspers has become chief executive officer of the company at a time when it is scaling down several internet businesses.

On Saturday, Naspers announced that its chief executive officer since 1997, Koos Bekker, is to be succeeded on 1 April 2014 by 41-year-old Netherlands-based Bob van Dijk: the company’s most senior e-commerce chief.

Naspers has emerged from being a publisher of Afrikaans newspapers under South Africa’s turbulent apartheid past to being among the world’s largest media groups outside of the US and Asia.

Pay-TV service DStv, South African publisher Media24 and e-commerce units under MIH Africa are all part of Naspers’ stable.

And under Bekker’s lead, Naspers has grown from a market cap of R5,6 billion in 1997 to its market capitalisation today of R500 billion ($45 billion).

But a key driver to Naspers growth has been its one-third stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent, which has owns online chat systems QQ and WeChat. Tencent itself is one of the biggest technology companies in the world with a market capitalisation of $131,8bn.

As a result, Naspers’ share price has shot past the R1000 level, making it among the most expensive on South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

However, while Naspers has recorded runaway growth, the size of its large stable has also resulted in some business failures.

Speculation emerged last week that Naspers was shutting down several of its South African focused e-commerce websites. Reports emerged that Style36, 5 Rooms, SAcamera and Kinderelo face the chop.

Media news website Marklives.com has confirmed the restructuring with comment from Naspers’ investment relations chief Meloy Horn.

“Naspers subsidiary, MIH Internet Africa (MIHIA), has decided to restructure operations to focus specifically on the general e-tail businesses such as Kalahari, which we plan to grow aggressively over the next year,” Horn told Marklives.com.

“Kalahari had a very strong Christmas and has just introduced an advanced platform successfully. The restructuring will allow more resources to be dedicated to core operations. In South Africa the group is considering closing some non-core brands and is consulting with staff.

“This process does not affect other Naspers subsidiaries with e-commerce investments in Africa, including Media24, which is focusing on fashion e-commerce. Media24 continues to leverage its magazine titles to drive e-commerce activity, especially through fast-growing fashion vertical Spree, and is planning to expand substantially in this area.

“On a group basis we remain very excited about the future growth prospects for e-commerce and continue to build out our platforms in many markets around the world,” said Horn.

‘Next phase of growth for Naspers’

Amid restructuring of its South African internet units, Naspers chair Ton Vosloo nevertheless says the appointment of van Dijk is in view of the company’s “strong development focus on e-commerce.”

“The board believes that Bob has the skills to lead us into the next phase of our growth,” said Vosloo in a statement.

Naspers in a statement describes van Dijk as a “keen sportsman” that speaks “five languages”.

The Netherlands-based van Dijk; though, has impressive e-commerce credentials as he previously headed up eBay Germany.

He also holds an MSc Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam (cum laude),
plus an MBA from Insead in France (Dean’s List).

He lives in the Netherlands with his wife Tina, a senior finance executive, and has two young daughters.

“Naspers is a great company and I’m honoured to lead an excellent team,” said van Dijk of his appointment.

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