Leifeng(Public account: Leifeng.com)On January 4, Tencent announced that it would reduce its stake in Singapore’s game and e-commerce company Sea Ltd (SE.N). Tencent’s voting rights in Sea are expected to be reduced to less than 10%.
According to a Reuters report, Tencent will be sold at a price of US$208.00 to US$212.00 per share, which will bring the total divestment to US$3.1 billion. Tencent will cut approximately 14.5 million shares, and its shareholding ratio will fall from 21.3% to 18.7%.
Tencent intends to maintain its majority stake in Sea for a long time and will continue to maintain its existing business partnership with Sea. Tencent will be subject to a lock-up period and will not be able to further sell Sea shares in the next six months.
The latest closing price of Sea is $223.31 per share. According to people familiar with the matter, the transaction has not yet been priced.
Tencent said in a statement: “Tencent’s share sale has realized part of the value of its investment in Sea, and its global business has grown and expanded significantly. This divestment provides Tencent with funds for other investments and social projects.”
The investment letter of intent shows that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America provided recommendations for the transaction. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley declined to comment, while Bank of America could not comment.
Sea stated that “Tencent and its subsidiaries have issued a notice requesting the conversion of all of its Class B common stocks.” After the conversion, all of Sea’s issued Class B shares will be beneficially benefited by the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer Li Xiaodong. hold. Sea plans to increase the voting power of B shares from 3 to 15 shares.
Regarding the above changes, shareholders’ approval is required at the annual general meeting of shareholders to be held on February 14. Once approved, it is expected that the issued Class B ordinary shares beneficially held by Li Xiaodong will represent approximately 57% of the voting rights, higher than the previous approximately 52%.
Tencent also stated: “As Sea has significantly expanded its scale to become a leading global consumer Internet company, this move will help to further clarify its capital structure and is in line with the growth of long-term strategies.”
Sea is the largest Internet company in Southeast Asia, with a market capitalization of US$124 billion, making it the company with the highest market value in Southeast Asia.
Coincidentally, just a few days ago, Tencent announced that it would reduce its US$16.4 billion worth of shares in JD.com, thereby weakening its ties with JD.com.
Tencent has taken a series of actions to actively weaken its influence, or it is unknown in response to stricter supervision.
.