Some guys have all the luck. Or is it business acumen?

In 2001, Koos Bekker – Chair of the South African media company Naspers (NPSNY) – put $34 million of his company's money into a then-obscure Chinese web company, Tencent Holdings (TCEHY).

Today, that stake (now diluted to 34%) is worth $66 billion, and Bekker is a billionaire. His wise move also transformed Naspers into South Africa's largest company by market cap as well as a global media giant – quite a change from its origins as a sleepy South African newspaper and pay TV company.

But is it possible to have too much of a good thing?

Naspers Stock Tied to Tencent

At this point, investors see Naspers as nothing more than a way to get in on Tencent. Furthering that outlook, the Financial Times says Naspers shares had a 98.5% correlation with Tencent's shares over the past five years.

But Naspers is a whole lot more than a play on Tencent.

I prefer to think of it as an emerging market venture fund specializing in e-commerce. Naspers still has the South African print business and an African pay TV business, which are the company's cash cows. Meanwhile, its emphasis is on building e-commerce and online classifieds businesses in the emerging world. In fact, the company provides media services in more than 130 countries.

Amazingly, though, Naspers' market capitalization is only equal to the value of its Tencent stake – which means investors are essentially getting the rest of its myriad businesses for free.

Naspers Worth More Than Tencent

As I said before, Naspers is something of a venture capital firm, and it has a successful track record, too.

Naspers accumulated a number of quality businesses under Bekkers' (he's now chairman only) leadership, and this is likely to continue under current CEO Bob van Dijk. Some of the better-known companies in which Naspers has a stake include Russian internet firm Mail.Ru Group (29%) and Indian e-commerce company Flipkart (19%).