Tencent posts quarterly drop, to distribute $20.3 billion in Meituan shares By Reuters

By Josh Ye

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Tencent Holdings on Wednesday mentioned it might distribute most of its stake price $20.3 billion in meals supply agency Meituan to its shareholders within the type of a dividend, because it posted a second straight quarterly income drop.

Tencent, the world’s largest online game firm and the operator of the WeChat messaging platform, mentioned it’s going to switch 958.12 million shares in Meituan, representing roughly 90.9% of the Class B abnormal shares it held in Meituan.

Tencent owns 17% of Meituan. Reuters reported in August the corporate deliberate to promote all or a bulk of its stake within the Chinese language tremendous app to placate home regulators and monetise an eight-year-old funding. A senior Tencent government mentioned on the time that was “not correct”.

The corporate has continued to wrestle beneath harsh guidelines imposed by Beijing on the tech trade and slowing financial circumstances.

On Wednesday, Tencent mentioned income fell 2% to 140 billion yuan ($19.8 billion) for the three months ended Sept. 31, from 142.3 billion yuan a 12 months earlier.

Analysts on a mean anticipated 141.6 billion yuan in income, in response to Refinitiv. As much as the earlier quarter, Tencent reported double digit development for nearly each three-month reporting interval because it went public in 2004, however its enlargement has been halted by China’s crackdown on the tech trade that started in late 2020. The Shenzhen-based large is retrenching, shutting some unprofitable companies and shedding workers in a bid to return to development.

Within the third quarter, the variety of Tencent workers fell by 1,875 to 108,836 as of end-September. The second quarter’s quantity was already down by 5,498, or almost 5% from the primary quarter. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the corporate has begun a brand new spherical of job cuts focused at its video streaming, gaming and cloud items. Reuters was not capable of set up the size of the job losses.

($1 = 7.0858 yuan)