Koos Bekker’s next big idea?

Prosus issued a regulatory notice late on Wednesday afternoon to inform shareholders that a family trust related to its chair, Koos Bekker, sold 2.5 million Prosus shares recently. The sale raised more than €173 million, or over R3.4 billion at the current exchange rate.

It seems as though Bekker is looking to spend the cash on architects, builders and fancy furniture.

“During 24 to 28 March 2023, the family trust sold a parcel of Prosus shares to fund building operations at hotels in various countries in which the family trust has an interest,” the formal announcement pertaining to director dealings issued to the regulatory authority in the Netherlands said.

Prosus has its primary listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and secondary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and A2X in SA.

The announcement states that the shares were sold in the open market. It disclosed that the biggest parcel of shares – 1.1 million – were sold for between €70.18 and €71.73 per share on 24 March.  Another 950 000 shares were sold at between €66.91 and €70 on 27 March, and 450 000 at between €69.07 and €70.06 on 28 March.

Bekker family trust share sales

Source: Prosus regulatory filling

The family trust acquired the Prosus shares as a consequence of owning Naspers shares at the time of the listing of Prosus in September 2019, according to the announcement, which added that the family trust has not sold any Prosus or Naspers shares since 2013.

This disclosure brings to mind Bekker’s sale of Naspers shares between June 2014 and June 2015, when analysts noted in the Naspers annual report that he had sold nearly 12 million Naspers shares.

At the time, he was criticised for not informing shareholders or the JSE about the big sale of nearly– which could have earned up to R20 billion then.

Technically, he did not need to inform the JSE as that was the year he took a sabbatical to travel the world to look for the “next big idea”, whereafter he latched onto the trend of home food delivery and, to a lesser extent, online shopping.

In his personal capacity, property and hospitality seem to be the big idea. Bekker and his wife Karen Roos bought the Babylonstoren wine farm in Franschhoek in 2007, and renovated it to a beautiful estate with a hotel, several restaurants, shops and big gardens. They also bought an old farming estate in the UK which they renovated in the same style.

The Babylonstoren wine farm in Franschhoek. Image: Babylonstoren website

The Prosus announcement says that the Bekker family trust continues to retain all its Naspers shares and three quarters of its total interest in Prosus that it had prior to the disposals noted in the disclosure.