Naspers asking Investec to pull ‘damaging’ analyst report

JOHANNESBURG: Naspers Ltd is asking Investec Ltd to withdraw an analyst report that it says contains errors and has damaged Africa’s biggest company by market value and its shareholders.

In the note dated Jan 22 seen by Bloomberg News, Investec analysts David Smith and Thapelo Mokonyane said Naspers should be valued at a 30% discount to its assets. That is due to a gradual increase in the number of outstanding shares over 11 years, taxation issues and costs associated with financial transactions, referred to in the report as friction costs, they said.