Cape Town - Media giant Naspers has been taken to task about its seeming tardiness in reporting on its carbon footprint.
On Friday David Couldridge, an analyst at Element Investment Managers, formerly known as Frater Asset Management, asked at the group's annual general meeting why Naspers was not participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
This project is an international initiative, the South African leg of which annually invites the 100 largest JSE-listed companies to disclose their greenhouse-gas emissions, their exposure to climate change and risks, as well as their associated strategies.
Back in 2007 Naspers was invited to participate as one of the Top 40 JSE companies, but said at the time that the group was reluctant to provide the information requested in the CDP questionnaires.
International institutional investors are increasingly loath to invest in companies that in their view are not clearly enough committed both to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to sustainable development.
Naspers points out that it is busy formalising processes within the company to report on climate-change risks and greenhouse-gas emissions. The group is ensuring that its paper comes from sustainable sources, and its waste paper is recycled.
Couldridge also referred to research by Avior Research, which expresses concern about the periods served by Naspers directors.
In terms of British corporate-management codes, directors serving for longer than nine years are no longer regarded as independent. Avior reckons that Naspers needs a better balance on its board.
According to Naspers chief executive Koos Bekker, a new independent director is being appointed in November.
The Naspers board has proposed a dividend of R2.07 per ordinary share, which is 15% more than in the previous year. In 2004 the Naspers dividend was 30c/share, and it has since increased sixfold, notes chairman Ton Vosloo.
Vosloo says Naspers plans to be one of the biggest media groups in emerging markets within five years.
Despite the global recession the group's turnover in the recent financial year rose 30% to R26.7bn. The downturn in consumer spending hurt the advertising revenue of local print media, but pay-television benefited in that more people stayed home.
Vosloo stated that internet publisher 24.com was being restructured to ensure strong growth. Naspers' pay-TV division has obtained TV licences in Ghana, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria.
For the second year in succession Naspers has been declared South Africa's most empowered media company, and its subsidiary, Media24, received full marks in the enterprise development and socio-economic components of the Department of Trade & Industry's empowerment scorecard.
The Naspers share price rose 2% or R5 to R254 on Friday.
- Sake24.com
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*Sake24 is a Naspers publication. The writer owns Naspers shares.