Naspers CEO’s R1.8 billion moonshot award

Naspers has offered its new CEO, Fabricio Bloisi, a special once-off moonshot award worth $100 million (R1.8 billion) if he performs exceptionally well.

The company provided details about Bloisi’s once-off moonshot award in its 2024 disclosure in terms of the appointment of its chief executive.

Bloisi was appointed Naspers and Prosus CEO on 10 July 2024 and joined the Naspers board as an executive director on 10 July 2024. He joined the Prosus board yesterday.

He will receive an annual salary of US$750,000, plus an annual short-term incentive and long-term incentive.

His short-term incentive is $750,000 per year, while his performance stock units (PSU) and share appreciation rights (SAR) amount to $52 million over his employment term.

His biggest bonus, a special once-off moonshot award of $100 million, will be paid if he achieves “truly extraordinary” new value in the market capitalisation of the group.

Naspers said the moonshot award will incentivise Bloisi to build shareholder value at an exceptional and peer-beating pace.

This once-off moonshot award will be triggered only when two conditions are met simultaneously:

1. The group’s aggregate market capitalisation is doubled or better within four years between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2028. This value must be maintained for at least one year, thus to 30 June 2029.
2. The group’s net value creation over the four-year term measured in US$ in terms of total shareholder returns compared to the TSR peer group beats the 50th percentile.

If Bloisi meets all these conditions, he will receive a special once-off award of US$100 million in Prosus and Naspers shares in July 2029.

“We believe that this LTI award will be very difficult to achieve, as it sets up two separate hurdles, which are both tough,” Naspers said.

First, Bloisi has to double the market capitalisation of the entire group within four years.

With the aggregate market capitalisation of Prosus and Naspers standing at US$84 billion on 1 July 2024, the number aimed at will be US$168 billion in four years.

Second, he has to outperform most of our peers – some of the world’s most energetic and best tech groups.

“We believe that the award’s relative size is justified if both conditions are achieved. In this case, the reward will be a tiny fraction of the total new net value created,” it said.

Not everyone was convinced. Only 83% of shareholders approved Prosus’s remuneration policy for executive and non-executive directors.

To put this in perspective, most other resolutions were adopted with over 99% shareholder approval.