South African billionaire Koos Bekker pays tribute to Steve Pacak, Naspers' finance architect of nearly four decades

Koos Bekker has paid tribute to Steve Pacak, the former M-Net finance boss and longtime non-executive director at Naspers and Prosus, who died at 71 after losing a battle with cancer.

Pacak's death was disclosed through simultaneous regulatory SENS filings on both Naspers and its Amsterdam-listed investment arm Prosus on April 21. He had served on the boards of both companies for nearly four decades, a tenure that spanned the group's transformation from a South African newspaper publisher into one of the world's most consequential technology investors.

Bekker, who chairs both Naspers and Prosus, did not hold back in his tribute. "Over almost four decades, Steve was a key mover in the development of our Naspers group," he said. "His financial and strategic contributions shaped the company at every significant turn."

Ton Vosloo, the former chairman of Naspers who oversaw the company through its earlier years, described Pacak and Bekker as "a formidable international combination." That framing captures what Pacak represented inside the group: not a peripheral figure, but a central one who operated alongside Bekker through the pivotal decisions that built the modern Naspers.

Pacak began his career in the media and entertainment sector through M-Net, the South African pay television platform that was an early and defining asset in what would become the Naspers empire. His finance expertise at M-Net helped lay the groundwork for the capital discipline that later enabled Bekker's most celebrated bet: the 2001 investment in Tencent, which cost roughly $32 million and grew into an asset worth hundreds of billions.

Pacak joined the Prosus board in August 2019 when the Amsterdam-listed entity was spun out of Naspers, carrying his experience across both structures. He continued to serve on the boards and their committees until his death.

His passing comes at a moment of significant transition for the group. Naspers and Prosus recently declared their transformation into a global AI operator complete, with chief executive Fabricio Bloisi rolling out the Toqan platform to 5 million Prosus partners. Pacak served long enough to see the company he helped build enter a third strategic chapter.

Bekker has been chair of Naspers since 2015, and the two men worked together through the full arc of the group's rise. The tribute he delivered signals the weight of that relationship and the loss the group has absorbed.