Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk has sold nearly R1bn worth of shares in the company, according to a notice to shareholders.
The group said that its CEO would reinvest most of the resulting funds back into the Naspers group in the form of bonds which he will buy on the open market.
A statement published on the JSE's stock exchange news service on Wednesday evening said Van Dijk sold 414 932 N shares in Naspers to the value of R995.8m.
Naspers said this comes after Van Dijk exercised share appreciation rights in the Naspers Global Ecommerce Share Appreciation Rights (SAR) plan, and received the ordinary shares in settlement of the gain.
The SAR, according to the group's 2019 remuneration report, is a long-term incentive plan that takes into account the performance of the company's internet businesses over time.
Despite the large sale, the company said Van Dijk continues to exceed the CEO minimum shareholding requirement of 10 times his salary.
"Bob van Dijk will reinvest most of the resulting funds back into the Naspers group in the form of bonds which he will buy on the open market," it said.
"The Naspers Global ecommerce share appreciation rights plan reflects the value of Naspers’s main internet businesses excluding Tencent," the company said.
Naspers previously faced criticism from shareholders over the transparency of executive remuneration, and committed to addressing these concerns, Fin24 previously reported.
A Naspers spokesperson, in a statement, told Fin24 that the decision to buy bonds was a "personal one".
- Additional reporting by Jan Cronje
*Fin24 is owned by Media24, a subsidiary of Naspers.