Picked up some interesting data while researching ahead of my interview last evening with Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk, who will celebrate six years as the Naspers Group CEO in April.
Since mid-December, when it became apparent the SA-controlled group was not going to win its uninvited bid for the UK’s food delivery platform JustEat, the Prosus share price has risen 22%. By contrast, the share price of winning bidder Takeaway.com has been flat. That tells us investors believe Prosus made the better decision.
The full interview with Van Dijk will be on Biznews Premium later, so if you haven’t yet signed up, please regard this as a nudge to take advantage of our 30 day free offer. As a general point, though, the share price action illustrates how global investors have rewarded Prosus for its decision to walk away from the deal.
Executive teams which show discipline in acquisitions are more rare than you might imagine. Corporate history is littered with corpses of companies whose executives got caught up in takeover chases. It’s a good start for Amsterdam’s most important recent listing. Especially because the Prosus team had considerably greater resources than the opposition.
