(Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. added 1.8 million Class A ordinary shares of Didi Global Inc. during the initial public offering of the ride-hailing company.
The Chinese company owned 78.85 million of Didi’s Class A shares as of Dec. 31, up from 77.07 million shares disclosed at the time of the IPO, a U.S. regulatory filing showed on Thursday. The move raises Tencent’s total ownership of Didi’s Class A shares to 7.4% as of Dec. 31. Didi’s shares listed in the U.S. closed 8.8% higher Thursday.
The social media giant subscribed to the additional stock during Didi’s initial public offering, which was not previously disclosed, a Tencent spokeswoman said in an email Friday. Tencent, which operates the WeChat messaging platform, has not acquired more stock in Didi since its debut in June and owned a total stake of about 6.67% as of September, she said.
The ride-hailing giant has seen its market value plunge by $47 billion in the span of less than eight months after authorities in China raised concerns about its data security. Didi said in December that it has begun making preparations to withdraw from U.S. stock exchanges and pursue a listing in Hong Kong.
Tencent has made some changes to its holdings in recent months. In early January the e-commerce firm cut its holdings of Singapore’s Sea Ltd., fueling speculation that it was planning to pare back its ownership in other Chinese tech firms. That came less than a month after Tencent told investors it planned to divest more of its stake in JD.com Inc. by handing out more than $16 billion of shares as a one-time dividend.
Didi’s four-day rally comes in the wake of news that Chinese state-backed funds had intervened in domestic stock markets Tuesday, rekindling hope that a bottom is near for the nation’s battered equities. Didi’s winning streak is its longest since October and has seen the stock jump 26%. Its shares fell as much as 6.3% in premarket trading Friday.
(Corrects to show Tencent’s ownership of Class A Didi shares was 7.4%.)
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