Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, November 16 (TMTPOST) — Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings announced Wednesday that it would distribute its $20.3 billion stake in online food delivery firm Meituan as dividends.

Tencent also said that its President Liu Chiping resigned from the position of executive director of Meituan.

Tencent will distribute nearly 958 million Meituan Class B ordinary shares indirectly held by Tencent through Huai River and TML to eligible shareholders as a special interim dividend based on "one Meituan Class B ordinary share for every 10 shares of Tencent". Based on Meituan's closing price of HK$162.3 ($20.74) per share on Tuesday, the total market value of Tencent's Meituan shares to be distributed is nearly HK$155.4 billion ($20.3 billion).

According to Meituan's semi-annual report, as of June 30, Tencent held a total of 1,054.6 million Meituan Class B shares as Meituan's largest shareholder. Among them, Huai River and TML together held 1,018.7 million shares, accounting for 18.5% of Meituan's total shares. The dividend distribution means that Tencent is divesting up to 90% of Meituan's shares it holds.

According to a Wednesday announcement by Meituan, Tencent indirectly holds about 17% of Meituan's outstanding shares through several entities. After the dividend payment is completed in March 2023, Tencent will hold less than 2% of Meituan and is no longer its largest shareholder.

Tencent has participated in several rounds of financing for Meituan since 2014. Before Meituan Dianping's IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018, Tencent was the largest shareholder with a 20.1% stake in Meituan. In April 2021, Tencent also subscribed $400 million in Meituan's additional issue. At that time, Meituan raised about US$10 billion through the issuance of convertible bonds and share placements for the development of technological innovations such as automated delivery vehicles and drone delivery, which was completed in July of 2021, of which Tencent subscribed for 11.35 million shares.