South Africa’s Naspers internet group said it will sell up to 2 per cent of Tencent, raising about $14.5bn and cutting its stake in China’s most valuable company for just the second time in two decades.
Prosus, the Dutch-listed international arm of Naspers that holds the Tencent stake, said on Wednesday that cash from the sale will “increase its financial flexibility to invest in growth” in an emerging-market internet empire that extends across Indian online payments, South American food delivery and Russian social media.
The offering to institutional investors, made just after a three-year lock-up expired on a first sale of shares in 2018, is “understood and supported by Tencent”, said Prosus, which pledged to avoid selling for another three years.