Thread by @sajithpai

Wonder if it is useful to think of Prosus (the entity to which Naspers has transferred its Tencent shares; and in which all its internet holdings are parked - Swiggy, DeliveryHero, PayU, Byju's etc) as a kind of Berkshire Hathaway of the new economy.

Here are its holdings. Another way to look at it is as buying an index fund for the new economy.
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What insurance (and thereby float income) is to Berkshire is its 31% holding in Tencent and the dividend income it gets to Naspers / Prosus.

In last 3 years, Naspers / Prosus got a dividend of $780m fm Tencent! Not bad!
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Not to mention that this 31% is worth ~$130b!

And do you know what this cost?

Well, Naspers (or rather its sub MIH) acquired 46.5% in Tencent for $33.25 in May '01! Who were the unlucky sellers?
- MVL, a Pacific Century (Richard Li) co
- IDG Ventures
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They had invested $1.1m each in Mar'00 for a 20% stake each ( via aconvertible instrument).

MIH purchased 20% fm MVL, 12.8% fm IDG and the rest fm founders to cobble up 46.5%.

via
open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/item…
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There were no new investors after that. Tencent became profitable soon after its messaging platform QQ became a monster hit.

After the IPO, MIH / Naspers's stake diluted to ~33%. It held on and saw its holding grow in value to about ~$175b till it sold 2% in '18 raising ~$10b!

Today the ~31% is worth ~$130b (some drop in valuation over the past yr). Still colossal though.

The Naspers - Tencent deal is easily one of the greatest investment deals of all time. Just imagine the IRR on that one!
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