SA’s Nasper To Sell 2% of Its Shares In Tencent

South Africa’s Naspers has announced that it would sell 2% of its shares in China’s Tencent Holdings to strengthen their balance sheet and to accelerate growth. The media/tech giant, however, added that it will not sell more shares for at least the next three years. The 2% the company is selling amounts to $10.6 billion.

Naspers, which owns a third of the fast-growing Chinese company, said it planned to sell 190 million Tencent shares reducing its stake to 31.2%.

According to a statement from Naspers, “The funds will be used to reinforce Naspers’ balance sheet and will be invested over time to accelerate the growth of our classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses globally and to pursue other exciting growth opportunities when they arise.”

Naspers said it plans to offer the shares to institutional investors globally.

The investment in Tencent has helped to transform Naspers from a small South African newspaper publisher into the continent’s most valuable company.

This news comes almost a month after Naspers sold its stake in Konga, a six-year-old Nigerian e-commerce company to Zinox, a Nigerian technology firm as part of an acquisition and shutting down its OLX offices in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana