The share price of Novus tumbled 6.35% to R6.05 on
Friday morning after it cautioned shareholders it was still unclear if
it would continue printing the newspapers and magazines of its erstwhile
parent Naspers.
"At this stage it is expected that the new printing terms and conditions being negotiated once finalised
could have a substantial adverse impact on Novus earnings and headline earnings for the financial year commencing 1 April," Novus said in a statement on Friday.
Novus shareholders discovered in January that the printing group’s existing agreement with its former parent was tied to one individual, Lambert Retief, who died on January 25.
Shortly after informing shareholders of the death of its then chairman Retief, Novus said this meant its printing agreement with Naspers’s subsidiary Media24 had been terminated and had to be renegotiated.
Novus’s share price has sunk to less than half the R13.25 initial public offering price at which Naspers sold 80-million shares when it unbundled its printing arm in May 2015.
Despite Novus’s poor performance, a call for Naspers to unbundle more of its media assets was repeated by activist investor Albert Saporta on Wednesday.
In an open letter to Naspers CEO Bob Van Dijk, Saporta called for the share to "become a pure Tencent tracker" by unbundling its other assets which valued at negative R600bn if Naspers’s current share price is deducted from the value of its holding in the Chinese internet group.
"It was exactly six months ago when I wrote to you about the value destruction going on under your helm at Naspers. At the time, you went at length to dismiss my suggestions to reduce the ever-increasing discount affecting your company. At the time of my letter, the value of Naspers’s unlisted participations was negative R300bn. It is now negative R600bn" Saporta wrote.
"In other words, in the space of the last six months, you managed to destroy as much value as had been destroyed since you had been appointed in April 2014 until my June letter. "
Businesslive
"At this stage it is expected that the new printing terms and conditions being negotiated once finalised
could have a substantial adverse impact on Novus earnings and headline earnings for the financial year commencing 1 April," Novus said in a statement on Friday.
Novus shareholders discovered in January that the printing group’s existing agreement with its former parent was tied to one individual, Lambert Retief, who died on January 25.
Shortly after informing shareholders of the death of its then chairman Retief, Novus said this meant its printing agreement with Naspers’s subsidiary Media24 had been terminated and had to be renegotiated.
Novus’s share price has sunk to less than half the R13.25 initial public offering price at which Naspers sold 80-million shares when it unbundled its printing arm in May 2015.
Despite Novus’s poor performance, a call for Naspers to unbundle more of its media assets was repeated by activist investor Albert Saporta on Wednesday.
In an open letter to Naspers CEO Bob Van Dijk, Saporta called for the share to "become a pure Tencent tracker" by unbundling its other assets which valued at negative R600bn if Naspers’s current share price is deducted from the value of its holding in the Chinese internet group.
"It was exactly six months ago when I wrote to you about the value destruction going on under your helm at Naspers. At the time, you went at length to dismiss my suggestions to reduce the ever-increasing discount affecting your company. At the time of my letter, the value of Naspers’s unlisted participations was negative R300bn. It is now negative R600bn" Saporta wrote.
"In other words, in the space of the last six months, you managed to destroy as much value as had been destroyed since you had been appointed in April 2014 until my June letter. "
Businesslive
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