---
title: "Koos Bekker: Naspers chairmanship, holdings and Wheatfields"
language: en
canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/naspers/koos-bekker-shares-and-control/
as_of: 2026-09-21
keywords: ["Naspers","Prosus","voting control","Nasbel","Keerom","Wheatfields","Takealot","PayU","Media24"]
---

# Koos Bekker: Naspers chairmanship, holdings and Wheatfields

**Question.** What is established about the chair’s economic and voting connections?

**Answer.** Company disclosures retain indirect interests and later share sales. Those positions do not settle every competing control theory, and a planned retirement is not a completed departure.

## Disclosed holdings, later trust sales and their stated purpose

- Analysis: A family trust linked to Koos Bekker sold 792,800 Naspers N shares and 1,556,807 Prosus shares over 17–19 December 2025, according to reporting based on company disclosures. The combined proceeds were reported at roughly R2.5 billion. [s-d106] [s-d134]
  - Qualification: These disposals are separate from the older high-vote Wheatfields structure. They do not show that Bekker left the chair or disposed of all of his interests, and an asset aggregator’s later valuation is a market snapshot rather than an independently verified personal net-worth figure.
  - Response: The companies said the proceeds would fund building operations at hospitality properties in which the trust had an interest and that it retained 90% of its pre-disposal holdings in both companies.

## Dated indirect interests disclosed by the company

- Analysis: The company’s 2014 and 2024 remuneration disclosures both identify Koos Bekker and Cobus Stofberg as holding an indirect 25% interest each in Wheatfields 221 Proprietary Limited. At March 2024, Wheatfields controlled 168,605 Nasbel ordinary shares, 16,860,500 Keerom ordinary shares, 179,988 Naspers A shares and 1,207,198 Prosus A1 shares. The older 2014 Naspers A holding was 133,350 shares. [s-d117] [s-d120] [s-d133]
  - Qualification: These are dated indirect holdings and share counts, before the October 2025 Naspers subdivision. The disclosed 25% interests support the historical economic connection but do not by themselves determine who controlled every Naspers vote. Caxton’s asserted Sanlam–Sholto–Goedgedacht chain is retained as its attributed account, distinct from the company’s own indirect-interest disclosure. A later retirement does not establish disposal of a person’s investments.

## The 2006 arrangement and the stated control rationale

- Analysis: The 2006 account of Wheatfields describes Sanlam placing its high-vote Naspers holdings into the vehicle, then selling half the vehicle to entities acting for Bekker and Stofberg. The stated consideration was R67.5 million for each of their interests, with the two assuming equal financial risk. The resulting structure retained a Sanlam economic interest while protecting the high-vote shares from a hostile bidder. [s-d137] [s-d346]
  - Qualification: The 2006 statement’s description of control and voting rights is a dated company account. Later Commission analysis and Caxton’s competing interpretation should not be silently replaced by it. Payments made in an acquisition are historical transactions, not continuing executive mandates.
  - Response: Bekker said the arrangement was intended to preserve Naspers’ independence and ability to operate internationally. The reported hostile PSG-led proposal illustrated the disparity between a tiny economic percentage and a much larger voting interest.

## Sources

- [s-d106] Media source · s-d106
- [s-d134] Other source · s-d134
- [s-d117] Company statement source · s-d117
- [s-d120] Company statement source · s-d120
- [s-d133] Other source · s-d133
- [s-d137] Media source · s-d137
- [s-d346] Media source · s-d346