Asian Tech Press (Sep 2) -- Prosus N.V., a subsidiary of South African internet group Naspers Ltd., reduced nearly HK$1.4 billion ($178 million) worth of Tencent shares in the first half of the year.

Tencent's 2022 interim report Thursday showed that its major shareholder Prosus reduced holdings by 391.59 million shares in the first half of the year.

The interim report disclosed that Prosus held about 2.765 billion shares of Tencent at the end of June, compared with 2.769 billion at the end of last year, a drop of 0.08 percentage points to 28.74%. Based on the closing price on June 30, the shares have a market value of HK$1.38 billion ($177 million).

Prosus reduced its stake in Tencent by about 2% in April last year, saying at the time that it would not sell further shares for at least the next three years.

However, only 14 months later, Naspers announced on June 27 that it would raise the necessary funds for its buyback program by selling its shares on the market in an orderly manner.

In response to media reports that Tencent will reduce its holdings in listed companies by 100 billion yuan this year, Tencent said Thursday that the company has not set any target amount for the reduction.

(US$1 = HK$7.8539)