Pony Ma pledged $7.7-billion towards curing societal ills and lifting China’s countryside out of poverty, echoing Xi Jinping’s priorities at a time Beijing is tightening its grip on Internet giants.
Just last year, the world’s most valuable start-up, ByteDance, was being squeezed from all sides. For all the obstacles, the company kept growing. Now its founder, 38-year-old Zhang Yiming, is among the world’s richest people.
Investors in Naspers said on Thursday they want proceeds from a $14.7-billion stake sale in its Tencent Holdings investment to go towards blockbuster acquisitions or a share buyback.
Shares of Tencent Holdings dropped in Hong Kong after Naspers unit Prosus priced its placement of the Chinese Internet giant’s stock at the top end of a marketed range, raising $14.7-billion.
Naspers spin-off, technology investment company Prosus, plans to sell a 2% stake in China’s Tencent, worth about R218-billion at current prices, in an accelerated offering to institutional investors.
Shares of ByteDance, the Chinese parent of hit video app TikTok, are trading at a valuation of more than $250-billion in the secondary market, according to people familiar with the matter.
China’s DiDi Chuxing Technology Co, which is backed by SoftBank Group and other investors, said on Monday it will start a ride-hailing service in Cape Town.
Chinese gaming and social media group Tencent Holdings, partially owned by Naspers spin-off Prosus, on Wednesday reported a market-beating 26% jump in quarterly sales, helped in part by its online gaming business.
Pony Ma, founder of Naspers affiliate Tencent Holdings, China’s biggest social media and videogames company, met with antitrust watchdog officials this month to discuss compliance at his group, sources said.
Apple has said it will apply App Store rules to all apps globally after reports that Chinese app developers are preparing workarounds for the company’s upcoming limits on ad tracking.