A JD.com warehouse in Beijing
AFP via Getty Images
Tencent Holdings , the Chinese social media and gaming giant, said Thursday it would reduce its stake in JD.com and distribute $16.4 billion in JD stock as a dividend to shareholders.
JD.com (ticker: JD) shares fell by more than 7% Thursday. Tencent (700.Hong.Kong) shares were up 4% on the news. The stock is down nearly 40% since its January high.
The sale of about 457 million shares in JD.com (ticker JD) would reduce Tencent’s stake to a little over 2% from the current 17%. Tencent has an ADR with the ticker TCEHY. Tencent president Martin Lau has resigned from the e-commerce group’s board, the group said.
After the distribution, U.S. retail giant Walmart will become JD.com’s largest shareholder, with a 9.3% stake.
Tencent started to invest in JD.com in 2014, helping the group compete with China’s e-commerce leader Alibaba .
Tech stocks in China have been under pressure because of uncertainty surrounding a regulatory crackdown in Beijing.
The owner of popular social media platform WeChat was recently barred by Chinese regulators from merging its two popular online videogame sites, and was ordered to terminate exclusive music copyright agreements.
