South African media group Naspers unveiled plans Monday to bundle its stakes in tech businesses including Tencent (TCEHY) into a new company that will be listed in Amsterdam.
Naspers would float 25% of the shares in the new business, which it said would become "Europe's largest listed consumer internet company."
In addition to Tencent, the new company will include Naspers' stakes in Indian e-commerce startup Swiggy, Russian internet business Mail.ru and German food delivery company Delivery Hero.
"The listing will present an appealing new opportunity for international tech investors to have access to our unique portfolio of international internet assets," Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk said in a statement.
Listing the assets on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam solves a problem for Naspers. Its stake in Tencent, which it bought for $32 million in 2001, was getting way too big for South African markets.
Naspers said that institutional investors in South Africa had been forced to trim their holdings in the company because its weighting had ballooned to 25% of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, up from 5% five years ago.
Tencent, the sprawling conglomerate that owns the WeChat messaging platform and a host of payment apps and mobile games, is one big reason behind the intense investor interest in Naspers.
Naspers raised nearly $10 billion in March 2018 by reducing its stake in Tencent from 33% to 31%. The remaining investment is now worth $134 billion.
While Tencent is by far its most successful investment, Naspers has made some other smart bets.
In May 2018, it netted $1.6 billion from the sale of its 11% stake in India's e-commerce platform Flipkart, now owned by Walmart (WMT). Naspers first invested in Flipkart in 2012.
The media and tech firm said Monday that it would remain the largest South African company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange even after the spin-off lists in Amsterdam.
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