Prosus cashed out $3.3 billion from Tencent in six months, and the pace of reduction has significantly slowed down

According to Zhitong Finance APP, the pace of share reduction by Naspers' internet investment flagship Prosus in Tencent (00700) has slowed down. Prosus announced that from early April to the end of September, it reduced its holdings by approximately 70.5861 million shares of Tencent, cashing out $3.3 billion, with its shareholding decreasing from 24.6% to 24.3%, equivalent to 2.253 billion shares. In late June 2022, Prosus initiated an unlimited reduction of its Tencent shares to support its own buyback plan and narrow the discount between its net asset value per share and its stock price. In the quarter ending September 30, Prosus only reduced its holdings by 27 million shares of Tencent, significantly lower than the record of 98 million shares reduced in the peak quarter at the end of December 2022.

Prosus revealed that from October 1 to November 27, it further sold 26.4245 million shares, meaning Prosus's holdings in Tencent have decreased to approximately 2.227 billion shares.

On Monday (December 2), Prosus announced its interim results for the period ending September 30, marking the first performance report chaired by Fabricio Bloisi since he took over as CEO of Naspers and Prosus. Prosus's interim revenue was $2.963 billion, a year-on-year increase of 26%; the reported net profit was 4.586 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36%; and the adjusted core profit (Core headline earnings) was $3.542 billion, a year-on-year increase of 76%.

Fabricio Bloisi stated that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way the company operates and serves its customers. Prosus has data from billions of transactions across its entire portfolio, enabling it to train AI models to better predict demand. "I am excited about the tremendous potential of Prosus—we are smoothly moving towards creating the next $100 billion value." He stated that our goal is to make PROSUS's operations and investments have Tencent-like value.

It is worth noting that Tencent's buyback efforts have significantly increased. In March of this year, Tencent announced plans to repurchase over HKD 100 billion in shares in 2024, which is more than double the HKD 49.4 billion repurchased in 2023. Public information from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows that Tencent Holdings repurchased shares worth HKD 35.9 billion in the third quarter. In the first three quarters of this year, Tencent has repurchased a total of 250 million shares, with a total repurchase amount reaching HKD 88.26 billion, setting a historical high for the same period.