In one fell swoop, it's about to get one. Sort of. Naspers Ltd., South Africa's most valuable company, plans to list its internet businesses in Amsterdam by distributing a stake of about 25% to existing shareholders, while retaining the rest of the new holding company. The valuation could top $100bn.
A direct comparison with the Silicon Valley titans is unfair, since Johannesburg-based Naspers's size has nothing to do with its own operations.
The new company will be more akin to SoftBank Group Corp. That's because the South African firm is largely a proxy for Chinese web behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd., in which it has a 31% stake. Naspers derives all of its value from the investment – its holdings in the likes of Germany's Delivery Hero SE and Russia's Mail.ru contribute nothing.
Considering that its Tencent holding is worth $133bn, but its market capitalisation is a humbler $98bn, the similarities to SoftBank are striking. The Japanese firm has a market capitalisation of $107bn, but its 29% stake in Alibaba Group Corp. is worth $132bn. Like Naspers, SoftBank has struggled to be seen by investors as little more than a proxy for Alibaba, and derives much of its value from the e-commerce company.
And both are investors in startups. The South African firm last year raised $9.8 billion for such investments by selling a 2% stake in Tencent. But while Masayoshi Son splashes his cash on a remarkable range of businesses, Naspers has adopted a narrower focus, targeting social platforms, e-commerce and payments.