Chinese gaming and social media company Tencent will hand a R258-billion JD.com stake as a dividend to its shareholders, weakening its ties to the e-commerce firm and raising questions about its plans for other holdings.

Tencent said on Thursday it will distribute HK$127.7-billion (R257.8-billlion) worth of its JD.com stake to shareholders, slashing its holding in China’s second biggest e-commerce company to 2.3% from around 17% now and losing its spot as JD.com’s biggest shareholder to Walmart.

South African technology investor Prosus, Tencent’s largest shareholder with a 29% stake, will receive the biggest portion of JD.com shares.

The owner of WeChat, which first invested in JD.com in 2014, said it was the right time to transfer its stake, given the e-commerce firm had reached a stage where it can self-finance its growth.

The divestment move comes as Beijing leads a broad regulatory crackdown on technology firms, taking aim at their overseas growth ambitions and domestic concentration of market power.

“This seems to be a continuation of the concept of bringing down the walled gardens and increasing competition among the tech giants by weakening partnerships, exclusivity and other arrangements which weaken competitive pressures,” said Mio Kato, a LightStream Research analyst who publishes on Smartkarma.

“It could have implications for things like the payments market where Tencent’s relationships with Pinduoduo and JD have helped it maintain some competitiveness with Alipay,” he said.

Market reaction

JD.com shares plunged 11.2% in early trade in Hong Kong on Thursday, the biggest daily percentage decline since its debut in the city in June 2020, before recovering partially to a 7% decline by 6.50am South African time. Shares of Tencent, Asia’s most valuable listed company, rose 4%.

The companies said they would continue to have a business relationship, including an ongoing strategic partnership agreement, though Tencent executive director and president Martin Lau will step down from JD.com’s board immediately.

Eligible Tencent shareholders will be entitled to one share of JD.com for every 21 shares they hold.

The JD.com stake is part of Tencent’s portfolio of listed investments valued at US$185-billion as of 30 September, including stakes in e-commerce company Pinduoduo, food delivery firm Meituan, video platform Kuaishou, automaker Tesla and streaming service Spotify.

Alex Au, MD at Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager Alphalex Capital Management, said the JD.com sale made both business and political sense.

“There might be other divestments on their way as Tencent heed the antitrust call while shareholders ask to own those interests in minority stakes themselves,” he said.

A person with knowledge of the matter said Tencent has no plans to exit its other investments. When asked about Pinduoduo and Meituan, the person said they are not as well developed as JD.com.

Tencent chose to distribute the shares as a dividend rather than sell them on the market in an attempt to avoid a steep fall in JD.com’s share price as well as a high tax bill, the person added.

Kenny Ng, an analyst at Everbright Sun Hung Kai, said the decision was “definitely negative” for JD.com.

“Although Tencent’s reduction of JD’s holdings may not have much impact on JD’s actual business, when the shares are transferred from Tencent to Tencent’s shareholders, the chances of Tencent’s shareholders selling JD’s shares as dividends will increase,” he said. — Sophie Yu and Scott Murdoch, with Xie Yu, Selena Li, Donny Kwok, Eduardo Baptista and Nikhil Kurian Nainan, (c) 2021 Reuters