Prosus N.V. (ENXTAM:PRX) is planning to sell more of its $134 billion stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited (SEHK:700) to finance a buyback program, reversing a pledge to hold onto the full shareholding. Tencent declined in Hong Kong on June 27, 2022 as investors pondered the extent to which Prosus, the Chinese company's biggest shareholder, will unload its stock. The shares fell as much as 2.5% and traded 1.6% lower at the close.

“We will keep selling Tencent shares to buy back our own, it's open-ended and an unlimited program,”, Chief Executive Officer Bob Van Dijk said in an interview. Disposals will be in relatively small chunks working out at about 3% to 5% of daily trading volumes, he said. The move represents a change of heart by Dutch e-commerce giant Prosus -- majority owned by South Africa's Naspers Ltd. -- which said after its last sale in April 2021 it wouldn't offload more shares for three years.

The company, spun off from Naspers in 2019, owns the 29% stake after its parent became an early Tencent investor more than two decades ago, bagging a multi-billion dollar return in one of the most profitable early bets in tech investment history. Prosus shares soared 18% as of 1 p.m. in Amsterdam, the most since March, while Naspers gained 24% in Johannesburg.