JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Dutch technology investor Prosus and its South African parent group Naspers on Friday named the head of their iFood business, Fabricio Bloisi, as their new CEO, replacing long-time boss Bob van Dijk who stepped down last September.
The companies, whose main asset is Prosus’s 26% stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent, said Bloisi – currently the CEO of Latin American food delivery business iFood – would assume the role at both companies on July 1.
“He (Bloisi) has a combination of vision, deep operational experience and strong discipline. It is this skill set which the board believes make him the right person to now lead us,” Prosus and Naspers Chair Koos Bekker said in a statement.
Bloisi said it was an honour to be given the opportunity to lead both companies during a very exciting period of innovation and change within the technology space.
“A company like Prosus must play an important role in identifying new technologies, such as AI, that impact the world and specifically emerging markets,” he added.
Outgoing CEO Dijk oversaw Prosus’s initial public offering in 2019 and the stock’s strong performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. But its shares fell in the broadly post-pandemic correction in technology valuations, and the company has struggled to reduce its discount to Tencent.
Interim CEO Ervin Tu has been appointed president and chief investment officer as Bloisi takes the helm.
Prosus shares were down 2.17% at 0804 GMT, while Naspers’ were down 1.37%.
Jefferies analysts said Bloisi’s skills as an owner-operator were unlikely to be fully used at the helm of Prosus given investments in both public and private companies have their own operators.
“We would have preferred a capital allocator with a track record in either private or public market expertise at the helm of Prosus,” they said.
(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru, and Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mark Potter)
