A relatively unknown South African firm has just become Europe’s biggest tech company following an IPO on the Amsterdam stock exchange.

Prosus, a holding company which invests in consumer internet, closed at €74 in its first day of trading in Amsterdam, up €26 on its opening price, and valuing the company at €120bn.

That makes it the third most valuable company on the Amsterdam exchange, behind Shell and Unilever.

Prosus’ investments include Russian social media company Mail.ru and meal delivery service Delivery Hero, but its biggest stroke of good fortune was an investment in Chinese internet firm Tencent in 2001.

Prosus bought half the shares in Tencent, which owns Chinese chat service WeChat, for €31m. That company is now worth €130bn.

Prosus is effectively the international arm of South African media group Naspers, which is listed in South Africa and retains 73% of the shares. Naspers already had an office in Hoofddorp and the chief executive of Naspers and Prosus is Dutchman Bob van Dijk.