Tencent’s Stock Closes at Two-Year High Despite Top Execs Paring Stakes

XU WEI

(Yicai Global) June 10 — Tencent Holdings’ shares reached their highest in more than two years despite senior executives offloading USD344 million of the Chinese tech titan’s stock so far this year.

Shares of Shenzhen-based Tencent [HKG:0700] closed nearly 2.9 percent up today at HKD446.20 (USD57.57) each, the highest since March 2018, clipping an intraday gain of as much as 3.1 percent.

President Liu Chiping has cashed in 1.7 million Tencent shares worth HKD666 million (USD86 million) in the year, according to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Chief Executive Pony Ma sold 5 million for nearly HKD2 billion (USD258 million) in January.

Liu sold 600,000 shares for HKD247.2 million (USD31.9 million) on May 29 and June 1. Despite this, the stock price rose to HKD429 (USD55.35) on June 1 from HKD404 on May 29. He shifted another 500,000 shares in January and 600,000 in April, leaving him with 55.39 million. Based on today’s price they are valued at HKD24.7 billion.

But the divested holdings make up just a small percentage of Tencent’s 9.6 billion outstanding shares. The company’s future stock price will depend more on its business performance, China Fund reported today.

The stock has risen almost 20 percent this year. The gains have been largely due to better-than-expected first-quarter profit. Net profit attributable to shareholders rose 29 percent from a year earlier to CNY27.1 billion (USD3.84 billion) on a 26 percent increase in revenue to CNY118.3 billion.

Editor: Kim Taylor