By Loni Prinsloo, Bloomberg.
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Prosus NV’s President and chief investment officer Ervin Tu will step down from his role after a nearly four-year tenure during which the South African-Dutch tech investment company restructured itself and appointed a new chief executive officer.
Tu, who joined in August 2021, will stay on as an advisor, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. He had served as acting CEO before the appointment of Fabricio Bloisi last year.
“I’ve accomplished what I wanted to achieve, and the group is in very good hands, “Tu, 49, said in the statement.
Tu had taken on the interim CEO role after Bob van Dijk stepped down in 2023, and was part of the team that attempted to simplify the group’s complex ownership structure and reignite growth in its core business.
The Amsterdam-based technology investor is majority-owned by Cape Town-based Naspers, which had spun off and listed Prosus in 2019, maintaining the same management team across both groups. Naspers was an early investor in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, and as the Tencent holding ballooned in value over the years, the investment distorted Naspers’s share price. The split, giving Prosus control over the Tencent stake and the group’s other technology investments, was an attempt to address that.
Bloisi was appointed CEO of both companies in 2024, joining from a Prosus portfolio company – Brazilian delivery business iFood. He will earn a $100 million bonus if he can double Prosus’s market value by the end of June 2028 and maintain it for another year.
Under Bloisi, the company is expanding through deals including the €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com and a $1.7 billion deal for online travel agency Despegar.com Corp. Prosus’s shares have gained 36% since July 1.