---
title: "Naspers share capital: buybacks, the 2025 split and shareholders"
language: en
canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/naspers/share-capital/
as_of: 2026-09-21
keywords: ["Naspers","Prosus","Tencent","Koos Bekker","Fabricio Bloisi","Keeromstraat 30 Beleggings","Naspers Beleggings","A ordinary shares","cross-holding","share repurchase programme","Media24","MultiChoice","Takealot","Avito","Kismet Capital Group","Ivan Tavrin","Competition Commission","Competition Tribunal","Just Eat Takeaway.com","PayU"]
---

# Naspers share capital: buybacks, the 2025 split and shareholders

**Question.** How has Naspers’s share capital changed since 2022, and who holds its shares?

**Answer.** Since June 2022 Naspers and Prosus have repurchased shares under an open-ended programme, which Naspers funds with regular sales of Prosus shares and which by 31 March 2026 had returned close to US$46bn to Prosus and Naspers shareholders. A five-for-one subdivision of the N and A ordinary shares took effect on 6 October 2025, and at 11 September 2026 Naspers's table showed 765,093 thousand N shares and 4,806 thousand A shares in issue. A Naspers announcement of October 2023 gave the Public Investment Corporation's interest as 21.199% of the N shares, and directors' holdings and dealings are recorded in Naspers's reports, in news reports, one of them citing director-dealing disclosures, and in market-data aggregator listings.

## The share-repurchase programme

- Analysis: Naspers and Prosus have bought back shares under an open-ended share-repurchase programme since June 2022, and Naspers funds its programme with regular sales of Prosus shares. Naspers's FY2024 annual financial statements state that from the start of the programme to 31 March 2024 it reduced the free-float share count by 21%, generated US$30bn of value for shareholders and coincided with a reduction of some 21 percentage points in the combined holding company discount; Prosus had repurchased 318 170 126 of its ordinary shares for US$17.1bn (9.4% accretion in NAV per share), and Naspers had sold 113 092 796 Prosus N shares and bought back 34 793 336 Naspers N ordinary shares for US$5.7bn. The summary of the integrated annual report for the year to 31 March 2026 states that since June 2022 the programme has reduced the Prosus free-float share count by 32% and returned close to US$46bn to Prosus and Naspers shareholders; to 31 March 2026 Prosus had repurchased 939 992 619 of its ordinary shares N valued at US$32.8bn (a 16% incremental accretion in NAV per share), and Naspers had sold 365 249 825 Prosus N shares and repurchased 323 404 606 Naspers N ordinary shares, totalling US$12.1bn. The FY2026 count of Naspers N shares post-dates the five-for-one subdivision of October 2025, whereas the FY2024 count pre-dates it, and the retained text does not say whether the later count is restated for the subdivision. [src-054] [src-006]

## The 2025 share subdivision

- Analysis: Naspers implemented a five-for-one subdivision of its N and A ordinary shares effective 6 October 2025 (record date 3 October 2025). In its declaration and finalisation announcement of 15 September 2025 it said its N shares traded at one of the highest prices per share on the JSE, significantly above the average of the JSE top 40 index constituents, and that the board resolved on the subdivision to enhance accessibility for a broader base of investors while preserving existing economic and voting interests, and to align the N share price more closely with that of Prosus. Shareholders had passed the required resolutions at the annual general meeting of 21 August 2025, and the amendments to the MOI were registered with the CIPC on 4 September 2025. To facilitate the subdivision, authorised share capital was increased under sections 36(2) and 16(1) of the Companies Act by 1 200 000 000 N and 6 000 000 A ordinary shares, and the subdivision was effected by issuing up to 636 154 992 new N and 3 844 772 new A ordinary shares. Naspers states that each A share holds one-fifth of the economic participation and that the split left shareholder rights and market capitalisation unchanged. The announcement's timetable suspended the Naspers repurchase programme from 25 September to 2 October 2025. A news report of the same day said the buyback would be suspended until the subdivision was done, whereas the company's timetable shows the programme resuming on 2 October 2025, before the 6 October implementation; the report added that the group reported having returned more than $35bn (about R600bn) across the group since the programme began in 2022. [src-012] [src-014] [src-059]

## Shares in issue and general authorities

- Analysis: Naspers's shares-in-issue table (in thousands) shows, at 11 September 2026, 765,093 N ordinary shares in issue, of which 19,346 were held in treasury (net 745,747), and 4,806 A ordinary shares, giving 750,553 net ordinary shares in total; at 31 March 2026 it shows 1,236 N shares in treasury. Naspers states that it intends to cancel the shares it repurchases weekly. A market-data aggregator's share-ownership page, undated in the retained copy and not confirmed by Naspers, lists 765,093,343 shares carrying one vote each, of which 572,742,400 (74.86%) are free float and 3,022,725 (0.3951%) are company-owned, and 4,805,965 shares carrying 1,000 votes each, none of them free float; it labels the classes 'Stock A' (one vote) and 'Stock B' (1,000 votes), the reverse of Naspers's own N and A naming. [src-012] [src-019]
- Analysis: Annual general meeting records give the voting base and the general share authorities. Naspers's AGM-results announcement of 27 August 2026 gives the total issued N ordinary shares as 765,093,343 and A ordinary shares as 4,805,965 (as at 31 March 2026, reflecting the five-for-one subdivision effective 6 October 2025), treasury shares as 16 880 000 and the number of ordinary shares that could have been voted at the meeting as 5 554 178 343; the treasury figure differs from those in the shares-in-issue table (1,236 thousand at 31 March 2026 and 19,346 thousand at 11 September 2026), which refer to other dates. At the annual general meeting of 22 August 2024, ordinary resolution 8, a general authority placing the authorised but unissued shares under the directors' control until the next AGM, passed with 84.46% of the voting rights, and ordinary resolution 9, a general authority to issue shares of an existing class for cash, which required at least 75% of the votes, passed with 93.38%. [src-134] [src-012] [src-151]

## Institutional shareholders

- Analysis: In a JSE announcement of 19 October 2023 under section 122(3)(b) of the Companies Act and the JSE Listings Requirements, Naspers advised that the Public Investment Corporation's beneficial interests in Naspers amounted to 21.199% of the N ordinary shares in issue; the PIC noted that the increase in percentage resulted from the capitalisation issue and consolidation of N ordinary shares implemented by Naspers on 18 September 2023, and Naspers said it would file the required notice with the Takeover Regulation Panel. A market-data aggregator's table of major shareholders of Naspers class N shares, undated in the retained page (which shows an end-of-day quote of 1 October 2025) and not confirmed by Naspers, lists the Public Investment Corporation SOC Ltd. with 172,387,018 shares (22.53%). After the PIC it lists M&G Investment Managers (Pty) Ltd. with 6,935,434 shares (0.9065%), Satrix Managers (RF) Pty Ltd. with 5,270,425 (0.6889%) and Fidelity Management & Research (Hong Kong) Ltd. with 3,367,000 (0.4401%) among the largest holders, and Sanlam Investment Management (Pty) Ltd. with 1,279,982 (0.1673%), with the other visible institutions shown at smaller percentages. [src-009] [src-019]

## Directors' holdings and dealings

- Analysis: Naspers's annual financial statements record directors' interests in its shares. The directors' interests table for the year to 31 March 2014 shows J P (Koos) Bekker with 11 687 808 Naspers N ordinary shares held directly and 4 688 691 indirectly, 16 376 499 in total, at 31 March 2014, the same as at 31 March 2013, and J D T (Cobus) Stofberg, appointed to the board on 16 October 2013, with 159 831 Naspers N ordinary shares held directly and 291 888 indirectly, 451 719 in total, at 31 March 2014. The same statements say that M R (Mark) Sorour was appointed an alternate to an executive director on 16 April 2014 and that he holds a beneficial direct interest in 900 Naspers N ordinary shares and an indirect beneficial interest in 95 255 Naspers N ordinary shares in group share schemes that had been released but not yet paid for and delivered. [src-052]
- Analysis: Later records give dated dealings and holdings. Naspers's FY2024 remuneration report states that on 13 July 2023 Basil Sgourdos transferred 25 522 shares from his own name to a recently established family trust, exercised 45 995 share options together with the linked Prosus N.V. share options, disposed of 27 300 shares at an average of R3 372.17 per share to cover taxes and took delivery of the remaining 18 695 shares in the trust, and that on 25 March 2024 Mark Sorour sold 35 434 Naspers N ordinary shares on market at an average price of R3 133.68 per share. A news report on Cobus Stofberg's retirement from the Naspers and Prosus boards, effective 19 August 2025, states that according to the companies' latest financial reports he holds 372,916 Naspers shares and 1,215,898 Prosus shares. A news report of 23 December 2025, citing regulatory disclosures by Naspers and Prosus made under JSE and European director-dealing rules, states that a family trust linked to chairman Koos Bekker sold 792 800 Naspers N ordinary shares on the JSE between 17 and 19 December 2025 for R860.5 million and, over the same days, 1 556 807 Prosus shares for approximately €81.7 million. Both companies said the transactions were undertaken to fund building operations at hospitality properties in which the family trust has an interest, and the report states that the trust retained 90% of the shareholding in both companies that it held before the disposals. [src-053] [src-141] [src-049]
- Analysis: Market-data aggregator insider profiles, which neither Naspers nor Prosus confirms in the retained record, list holdings of Prosus N.V. class N shares: Koos Bekker with 14,189,691 shares (0.65%), dated 30 March 2026; Fabricio Bloisi with 575,141 shares (0.03%), dated 10 August 2026; Hendrik du Toit with 11,139 shares, dated 30 March 2026; and Mark Sorour with 2,424 shares, dated 30 March 2026. [src-062] [src-065] [src-070] [src-077]

## Sources

- [src-054] Company statement source · src-054
- [src-006] Company statement source · src-006
- [src-012] Company statement source · src-012
- [src-014] Company statement source · src-014
- [src-059] Media source · src-059
- [src-019] Other source · src-019
- [src-134] Company statement source · src-134
- [src-151] Company statement source · src-151
- [src-009] Company statement source · src-009
- [src-052] Company statement source · src-052
- [src-053] Company statement source · src-053
- [src-141] Media source · src-141
- [src-049] Media source · src-049
- [src-062] Other source · src-062
- [src-065] Other source · src-065
- [src-070] Other source · src-070
- [src-077] Other source · src-077