Naspers has elected to postpone an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to approve the listing of its international Internet assets in Europe by almost two months, with the target date for the listing now set for September.

The technology and media giant on Friday blamed an “administrative error by an external service provider (that) resulted in certain of the copies of the circular delivered to shareholders being incorrectly labelled”.

“The service provider concerned has advised Naspers that the error occurred in pairing the names and addresses of some shareholders for purposes of printing labels on the envelopes in which the physical copies of the circular were delivered to certain shareholders,” it said. “This meant that some circulars were sent to the correct addresses of the affected shareholders, but that incorrect names appeared on these envelopes (the name and address did not match). This could, in some cases, lead to confusion.”

The group said that to allow all shareholders equal opportunity to consider the circular and resolution fully, the board decided to withdraw the notice of the general meeting and cancel the meeting to which the notice related.

The new general meeting of shareholders to consider the proposed transaction will now be held on the same date as the Naspers AGM, scheduled for 23 August 2019. Subject to the valid adoption of the resolution required, Naspers expects the proposed transaction to be implemented in September 2019.

“The Naspers board remains fully supportive of the proposed transaction and the potential benefits that could be realised by forming and listing a new, global consumer Internet group on Euronext Amsterdam, with a secondary, inward listing on the JSE,” it said. The listing is designed to unlock shareholder value and narrow the discount that Naspers trades at in relation to the value of its 31.2% stake in Chinese Internet giant Tencent.  — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media