Naspers CFO Basil Sgourdos sells R26 million in shares

Naspers CFO Basil Sgourdos sold R26 million worth of Naspers shares this week, which brings his total share sales for the year to around R210 million.

Sgourdos was appointed as the financial director of Naspers in July 2014 and has been with the group since 1994.

He served under former Naspers and Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk for nearly a decade and accumulated tremendous wealth during this period.

Over the last year, many Naspers and Prosus directors, including Van Dijk and Sgourdos, sold a large number of shares.

On Tuesday, Naspers announced that Sgourdos sold another 8,618 Naspers shares worth slightly over R26 million.

The company explained that Sgourdos was awarded 28,623 Naspers performance share units (PSUs) at a nil base cost on 21 September 2020.

These awards followed feedback from shareholders to better incentivise long-term value creation in our underlying internet businesses.

These Naspers PSUs vested on 21 September 2023, subject to conditions linked to the performance of the eCommerce portfolio being met at 200% of the awarded PSUs.

This resulted in Sgourdos receiving 57,246 Naspers performance share units. Following the vesting, he exercised all the Naspers PSUs.

He sold 8,618 Naspers N ordinary shares to cover taxes and related costs on the market and took delivery of the remaining 48,628 Naspers N ordinary shares into his family trust.

The sale happened amidst Naspers and Prosus’ share buyback scheme, which was launched on 27 June 2022.

Between 19 September 2023 and 22 September 2023, the group purchased 340,108 Naspers shares valued at R1.1 billion.

Sgourdos sold a large number of Naspers shares in 2023. These share sales also took place during the company’s share buyback programme.

In January, he sold 27,360 shares worth over R92 million, followed by a similar share sale in July, also above R92 million.

The table below shows Sgourdos’ share transactions this year, totalling around R210 million in sales.

Date of transaction	Type of transaction	Number of shares	Value
27-Jan-23	Sale	27,360	R92,438,255.23
23-Jul-23	Sale	27,300	R92,060,145.45
21-Sep-23	Sale	840	R2,561,675.26
22-Sep-23	Sale	7,778	R23,448,240.20