CEO of Tencent, WeChat owner, sells $400 million in stock

folarin okunola

September 27, 2015 7:47 PM

Hong Kong stock exchange data shows that Ma sold off a total of 23 million shares of Tencent stock over four different transactions between September 17 and September 22.

Tencent CEO, Pony Ma

CEO of Chinese tech giant, Tencent, owners of WeChat, Pony Ma, cashed in on $412 million worth of Tencent stocks late last week.

According to report by TechInAsia, Hong Kong stock exchange data shows that Ma sold off a total of 23 million shares of Tencent stock over four different transactions between September 17 and September 22.

It is still unclear why Ma sold off said shares or what he intends to do with the windfall of cash, but his ownership stake in Tencent hasn’t really changed much. According to a report by Sina Tech, before selling of said shares, he owned 9.62 percent of the company. Now he owns 9.37 percent.

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Tencent’s stock has been enjoying record highs for most of the year as WeChat continues to grow and evolve, but it is still considerably lower than it was some months back. If Ma had sold of the same amount of shares back then, he would have cleared an excess of more than $500 million.

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