Layoffs: Naspers to Reduce Its Workforce By 30%

Naspers is one of Africa's largest companies by market capitalization, and a subsidiary of Prosus is planning to reduce its workforce by 30%. This is said to be done in the course of the year as reported by Bloomberg. 

Naspers layoffs were announced by the CEO, Bob Van Dijk, who is one of Europe's largest investors when it comes to technology, who said they will have to let go of some staff across 15 locations. These locations include corporate centers in Hong Kong, South Africa, and Amsterdam.

Naspers Layoffs: Why are they cutting jobs?

The CEO gave the reason for the layoff, and in his words, he said, "The reality is that the macro environment has become more difficult, and it has also changed a lot. This also means the cost of capital has changed because as the interest rates go up, the risk premiums go up as well".

Additionally, he said Prosus will consider cutting costs in the over 80 companies it has in its portfolio, and planning to wield the proverbial axe at different times and scales. Dijk said these moves will push Naspers to become more profitable by 2025.

More on Naspers and Prosus

As of November last year, Naspers announced shaky 2022H1 financial results, citing, among others, the impact of higher inflation and interest rates on consumers’ spending power. The company had a rough 2022, one of the challenges it faced was having its headline earnings decrease by 15%. Also, the headline earnings decreased by 104%, and its earnings per share decreased by as much as 87%.

Van Dijk in 2022, sold about R1.6 billion in two weeks from Naspers’ shares, it was done in the midst of the share repurchase program which saw the company sell out a portion of the 10 cents to buy back their stock. Their stock dropped by 2% from its opening price following the layoff news.

We are adapting to the changing macro environment and this has pushed us to be working for some time to energize our cost structures. Today, we shall are saying we shall be laying off some employees, as we try to realign our efforts in certain areas, and decrease the cost base. A Prosus spokesperson said

How many workers does Naspers have?

The company is said to have about 30,000 workers, and most of its staff are employed at companies based on their investment portfolio. With the percentage that will be sacked, it means about 9000 of its workers will be sacked. 

The number of workers employed at corporate offices around the globe is not known. Prosus and Naspers have about 15 corporate offices across the globe and they have their largest ones in Amsterdam and Johannesburg.

Final words on Naspers Layoffs

Naspers has now added its name to the companies with layoffs. They own three major entities, Prosus, Media24, and Takealot. Prosus runs investments in companies like Udemy, PayU, OLX, and many others.

Having given you different reports about layoffs, we will tell you to keep glued to our blog, as we bring to you more news reports.