Tencent shares have fallen by more than 15% this year.
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Tencent fell on Monday after its biggest shareholder said it would sell stock in the Chinese internet giant to fund a share repurchase program.
Amsterdam-listed Prosus , (PRX: Amsterdam), a subsidiary of South Africa’s Naspers (NPSNY), said that it would “begin selling small numbers of ordinary shares . . . regularly and in an orderly manner” to fund repurchases of its own stock. Prosus owns a roughly 29% stake in Tencent (TCEHY).
“Tencent is supportive of the withdrawal by Prosus of its voluntary restriction on the sale of its Tencent shares,” Naspers said in a statement, adding that the boards of Naspers and Prosus have “great confidence in Tencent’s long-term prospects.”
Daily sales of Tencent stock “will represent a small percentage of average daily traded volume of Tencent shares,” Naspers added.
Tencent shares, which have fallen by more than 15% this year, erased earlier gains in Hong Kong to close down 1.25%. Shares in Prosus surged 13.36% in early European trading.
Separately on Monday, Naspers said that Prosus had disposed of its entire stake in Chinese e-commerce company JD.com (JD) for about $3.67 billion.
Write to Lina Saigol at [email protected]
