South African e-commerce company Naspers has raised $9.8 billion from the sale of a 2 percent stake in Chinese investment Tencent to strengthen its balance sheet and fund growth in its e-commerce businesses.
Naspers said it sold 190 million shares in Tencent via an accelerated bookbuilding process, reducing its holdings to 31.2 percent, to strengthen its finances and invest over time in its classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses globally.
The sale was priced at HK$405 per share, a discount of 7.8 percent to Tencent's closing price on Thursday.
In May and September 2017, Naspers invested 1.05 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in German takeaway firm Delivery Hero AG and has been involved in 14 deals worth $1.94 billion this year alone.