Bob van Dijk unpacks Naspers/Prosus results in detail with Alec Hogg

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Under-fire chief executive Bob van Dijk was the flagship guest for Monday’s BizNews Power Hour with the Dutchman unpacking Naspers and Prosus’ encouraging results with BizNews founder, Alec Hogg. Van Dijk, who has come under scrutiny in recent years regarding his inability to unlock value for shareholders, gave fascinating insights into the stables growing e-commerce assets. Naspers has made some big bets in the food delivery and EdTech space in recent years, which according to Van Dijk, are starting to bear fruit. Will the Van Dijk critics be proven wrong? Only time will tell. – Justin Rowe-Roberts

Bob van Dijk on the $39bn valuation of Naspers e-commerce assets: 

We have an independent company, Deloitte, that looks at all these businesses and forms a view. If you look at the $39bn number that comes out of that exercise, it is actually very similar to what analysts put on this portfolio value. It seems they have used similar methodology and come to very similar conclusions. It is a big number but if you look at what underpins it, it is businesses that are growing really fast. The e-commerce portfolio grew revenue 54% in the year that was.

On the long-term sustainability of the food delivery businesses: 

We have seen the food delivery business grow revenues 127% over the past year. These businesses are on the right trajectory. If you look at the individual markets and individual countries within the portfolio you see profitability already. We are comfortable that that these businesses are extremely valuable and many investors are too – one of the largest food delivery businesses in the world, which is DoorDash in the US, is a business which is valued at $50bn even though they are yet to make a profit. We see it from the inside and are comfortable to keep investing.

On the reaction to the $1.8bn StackOverflow acquisition: 

It has been overwhelmingly positive. Two things that were well received was that we are a long-term orientated business, we are not looking to milk things for short-term profit. We are a patient investor that respects the communities that we work with. StackOverflow has a really strong community but it also has strong growth potential in markets in Asia, which is where we have a lot of operating expertise.

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