Rhea Liu
Pony Ma, CEO and founder of Tencent, reduced his stake in Tencent by 23.85 million shares between September 17 and 22, according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Ma offloaded four times between Sept. 17 and 22, during which time the price of Tencent was between HKD 133.365 (USD 17.21) and HKD 135.495 (USD 17.48). Ma cashed out a total of HKD 3.2 billion (USD 410 million). His share in Tencent Holdings has now dropped from 9.62% to 9.37%.
Ma has reduced his stake in Tencent at least twice in the past year. He sold over 25 million shares last December at a price of HKD 119 (USD 15.35) netting HKD 2.99 billion (USD 390 million) in total. It’s reported that Ma used the money to bulk buy Ping An Insurance shares together with Alibaba CEO, Jack Ma.
In April, Pony Ma sold another 20 million shares for on average of HKD 160 (USD 20.65), cashing in HKD 3.22 billion (USD 420 million). Ma is again reported to have bought the stock of multiple insurance companies. He then clarified in May that it was personal investment and wasn’t pertinent to corporate strategy.
Tencent’s stock price saw minor fluctuations following Ma’s transactions but no major impacts have been spotted.
China’s stock market has witnessed several big bulk reductions by tech heads in the past year. Jack Ma cashed out RMB 6.7 billion (USD 1.05 billion) when Alibaba had its IPO last year. Jia Yueting, CEO of LeTV, sold 148 million shares for RMB 12.5 billion (USD 1.96 billion) before China’s mainboard crashed in June of this year.
Pony Ma is currently accompanying the President of China, Xi Jinping, on a visit to Seattle.
(Photo from Tencent Tech)
