Tencent divests 2.6% of equity interest in Singapore’s Sea Ltd
(ASEAN Startups) Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a transaction to divest an aggregate of 14.49 million Class A shares of Singapore-headquartered e-commerce and gaming firm Sea Ltd , reducing Tencent’s equity interest in Sea from 21.3 percent to 18.7 percent.
Including proposed voting rights changes, Tencent’s voting power in Sea is expected to be reduced to under 10 percent, the company said in a statement.
Tencent also said it intends to retain the substantial majority of its equity stake in Sea, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, for the long term and will continue its existing business relationships with the company.
Tencent will be subject to a lockup period that restricts the further sale of Sea shares by Tencent during the next six months, it added.
“The share sale unlocks a portion of the value of Tencent’s investment in Sea, which has seen significant growth and expansion in its global business operations. The divestment provides Tencent with resources to fund other investments and social initiatives while retaining a substantial majority of its stake in Sea and continuing to benefit from the company’s future growth,” Tencent said.
If voting rights changes currently pending approval by Sea’s shareholders at a coming general meeting secure approval, Tencent will convert its supervoting Class B shares to Class A shares, and Tencent will terminate its proxy agreement in favor of Forrest Li, Founder, Chairman and Group CEO of Sea Ltd.
According to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters , Tencent is selling at a price range of $208.00-$212.00 per share, bringing the total divestment to up to $3.1 billion.
Tencent’s move to divest stake in Sea comes after the company said earlier it would divest $16.4 billion of its stake in Hong Kong-listed e-commerce firm JD.com. This also comes at a time as Beijing continues to impose a broad regulatory crackdown on technology firms.
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