(Bloomberg) -- Naspers Ltd. said a newly created entity containing assets including a stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. will be valued at about $100 billion.
Africa's largest company by market value received shareholder backing last week to proceed with the listing of Prosus NV in Amsterdam next month. Alongside the Tencent stake, the new company will hold businesses from Brazil to Germany in industries such as online food delivery and classified advertising.
A value of $100 billion would make only Royal Dutch Shell Plc and consumer-goods giant Unilever bigger in Amsterdam by market capitalization. The company would overtake ASML Holding NV, a semiconductor gear-maker priced at about 80 billion euros ($89 billion).
Naspers opted to spin off Prosus -- in which it will keep a 73% stake -- to ease its dominance of Johannesburg's stock exchange and help reduce a valuation gap between the Cape Town-based company and its stake in Tencent. The new group's assets were valued at about $34 billion as of end June, Naspers said in a statement on Monday.
Naspers Looks to Invest in AI as Prosus Listing Approved
Naspers shares erased gains after the publication of the anticipated market value of Prosus, and traded 0.1% higher at 3,421.11 rand as of 11:52 a.m. in Johannesburg.
The stock could gain by a further 40% to 4,800 rand, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts led by JP Davids said in a note published Monday. “In addition to Tencent's outperformance, we expect the recent compression in the holding company's discount to be sustained as it reduces its South African sovereign exposure.”
Prosus had net income of about $1.4 billion for the three months through June, compared with $1.1 billion the previous year, Naspers said.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are the main financial advisers on the Prosus listing.
--With assistance from Joost Akkermans.
To contact the reporters on this story: Loni Prinsloo in Johannesburg at lprinsloo3@bloomberg.net;Renee Bonorchis in Johannesburg at rbonorchis@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, John Bowker, Frank Connelly
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