By Joe Hoppe

Naspers and Prosus said Tuesday that they intend to remove their cross-holding structure to allow the continuation of a share buyback program at the Naspers level.

South African investor Naspers said the proposed transaction will remove complexity created by the current cross-holding structure while keeping the effective economic interests in the companies the same, aligning the legal ownership of Prosus by Naspers.

The transaction is expected to be carried out in the third quarter of the year, and the approvals needed have already been obtained from the South African Reserve Bank.

Postimplementation, Naspers will hold around 43% of the issued Prosus N ordinary shares and Prosus free-floating shareholders will hold the remaining 57%.

The share buyback--launched in June 2022--has been operating at both the Prosus and Naspers level, to ensure that economic interests remained in balance over time. As the repurchasing at the Naspers level is being carried out through acquisitions by one of its South African subsidiaries, there is a limit under South African law of the amount of shares that can be repurchased.

The proposed transaction will remove this limitation and enable the repurchasing to continue at the Naspers level.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 27, 2023 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)

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