The man who received R2.2 million per month after he left South Africa’s largest tech company

Former Naspers Chief Executive Bob van Dijk received R165.8 million from the company after he stepped down on 18 September 2023.

Van Dijk succeeded former Naspers CEO Koos Bekker in 2014 and was CEO of Prosus from its initial public offering in 2019 to 2024. Bekker is the chairman of Naspers and Prosus.

Van Dijk began his career as an associate at McKinsey with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and media. There, he developed an interest in the Internet and e-commerce markets.

He moved to eBay, where he served as Vice President and General Manager of eBay Germany and Europe Emerging Markets. He was also the chief operating officer of Schibsted’s Classifieds.

Van Dijk joined Naspers in August 2013 as chief executive of its Allegro online marketplace division. He was promoted to CEO of Global Transaction eCommerce in October 2013.

In April 2014, less than a year after joining Naspers, he was appointed chief executive of the technology giant.

Naspers was based in South Africa. However, Van Dijk, his Norwegian wife Tina, and their two daughters lived in the Netherlands.

He ran Naspers from the Netherlands and later established Prosus in Amsterdam, which held most of Naspers’ tech investments, including Tencent.

During his tenure as chief executive of Naspers and Prosus, they made numerous technology acquisitions. However, many of them struggled.

Under Van Dijk’s leadership, Naspers’ trading discount widened, putting pressure on the management team to unlock value.

His strategy to unlock shareholder value by listing Naspers’ Internet businesses separately under Prosus did not work.

In another attempt to unlock value and reduce the trading discount to its assets, Naspers investors were asked to swap their stock for shares in Prosus in 2021.

This deal did little to add shareholder value and was described as “idiotic” by hedge fund manager Albert Saporta.

On 18 September 2023, Naspers and Prosus announced that Van Dijk had stepped down from his position as CEO and director, effective immediately.

It added that Van Dijk has agreed to assist with the transition after this date and will remain as a consultant to the group until 30 September 2024.

After leaving Naspers, he joined the education technology company Snappet as chairman and serves as a strategic advisor for the online classifieds group Adevinta.

Bob van Dijk received a handsome package from Naspers

Although market speculation suggested that Van Dijk was booted from Naspers and Prosus, he was paid handsomely since leaving the company in September 2023.

According to the latest financial statements, the former Naspers CEO received a severance payment of R13.7 million.

The reason for the severance payment was compensation for the loss of office. This suggests that Bob van Dijk involuntarily stepped down.

Van Dijk also received R2.2 million per month as consulting fees for six months, from April 2024 to September 2024, after he stepped down. This amounted to a total of R13.3 million.

Naspers also stated that Bob van Dijk did not receive specific long-term incentive awards due to his stepping down.

Naspers decided to regard Bob van Dijk’s long-term performance goals as having been met and paid him a one-time bonus payment of R138.8 million.

Therefore, since Bob van Dijk stepped down, he received an additional R165.8 million from Naspers.

The table below shows how much Bob van Dijk was paid during his tenure as Naspers chief executive.