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Tencent shares have fallen by more than 15% this year.
AFP via Getty Images
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]
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