Naspers-owned Prosus has continued its selloff of Tencent Holdings, bringing its stake in the Chinese internet giant to under 26%.
The Amsterdam-listed tech investor sold 789 600 ordinary shares of Tencent on Tuesday, lowering its holding to 25.99%, it said in a regulatory filing. Prosus bought its own shares worth €185-million between 17 and 21 April as part of a repurchase programme, according to the statement.
Prosus, an early investor in Tencent through its Cape Town-based parent Naspers, first started its campaign to reduce its holdings in mid-2022 as a way to fund the buyback. The selloff is an open-ended process and CEO Bob van Dijk has said that trades are being executed in small chunks of between 3% and 5% of daily volumes.
Prosus deposited an additional 96 million Tencent shares, or about 1% of the company, in Hong Kong’s clearing and settlement system this month, typically a precursor to offload stock. The Dutch firm has a regulatory requirement to disclose its interest in the Chinese company every time it decreases by a full percentage point.
The company has cut its stake in Tencent from 29% in June 2022 in a move that could help it to bridge the gap between its market value and the value of the assets it holds.
Prosus shares were down 1.1% in Amsterdam while parent Naspers declined 0.3% in Johannesburg. — (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP