Tencent dishes out over $16bn to shareholders in JD.com windfall December 23, 2021 Chinese tech giant Tencent is set to dish out $16.4bn to its shareholders in the form of the majority of its stake in JD.com. The move will see the gaming and social media group cut its holding from 17 per cent to just 2.3 per cent. It means Tencent will step down from the helm [...]
China hands out new fines to tech giants in anti-monopoly crackdown November 20, 2021 Chinese tech giants including Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings have been fined for failing to report corporate acquisitions, adding to an anti-monopoly crackdown by the ruling Communist Party. The companies failed to report 43 acquisitions that occurred up to eight years ago under rules on “operating concentration”, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation. [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile today? November 12, 2021 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every morning. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. BGF Business Growth Fund (BGF) has appointed a new head of ESG and sustainability, who will be tasked with embedding the new investor focus into the fund’s new and existing portfolio companies. Roshni Bandesha has spent the [...]
Private equity and UK tech powering £8.4bn M&A tsunami on LSE’s AIM as deals jump 155 per cent November 8, 2021 The value of M&A deals on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) has jumped 155 per cent to £8.4bn in 2020/21, compared to £3.3bn in 2019/20, according to new research shared with City A.M. this morning. The large rise in the value of AIM M&A deals this year is due in large part to a number [...]
MPs call for parliament pension fund to divest from Chinese firms linked with Uyghur atrocities October 19, 2021 A cross-party group of 117 MPs have called for the Parliament Pension fund to divest from Chinese companies linked to Xinjiang – the region where Uyghurs are being ethnically cleansed. The group of MPs – which includes shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former cabinet minister Dr Liam [...]
Uyghurs: MPs call for parliament pension fund to divest from Chinese firms : CityAM October 19, 2021 A cross-party group of 117 MPs have called for the Parliament Pension fund to divest from Chinese companies linked to Xinjiang – the region where Uyghurs are being ethnically cleansed. The group of MPs – which includes shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former cabinet minister Dr Liam [...]
Largest-ever wealth drop: Chinese e-commerce mogul loses $27bn September 17, 2021 The founder of a Chinese e-commerce platform has reportedly seen his wealth nosedive $27bn this year – the largest wealth drop in the world on record. Colin Huang, who made his wealth through his platform Pinduouo (PDD), has suffered as a result of China’s hawkish regulations on internet and technology firms. The biggest plunge in [...]
Universal Music boss Lucian Grainge locks eyes on $150m IPO pay out September 15, 2021 Universal Music’s stock market debut next week it set to land its boss Lucian Grainge an around $150m pay out, while he also cashes in on his Tencent investment. The British record label mogul, who nearly died of Covid-19 last year, is to receive the $150m through a “transaction bonus”, if the listing secures a [...]
Tencent ends all exclusive music rights deals after Beijing crackdown August 31, 2021 Tencent has ended all its exclusive music licensing agreements with record labels across the world after Chinese regulators ordered it to do so last month, as part of an intensifying crackdown on the country’s tech giants. In a statement released on the Chinese tech conglomerate’s official WeChat page, Tencent said all parties involved in the [...]
Prosus to pay $4.7bn for rival Indian payments firm in largest buyout yet August 31, 2021 European technology giant Prosus has reportedly put forward $4.7bn for its largest ever deal, to buy Indian payments platform BillDesk, in yet another foreign investment in the country’s blossoming tech sector. BillDesk currently competes with Prosus’s payments firm PayU in India which means the deal will open up a fair portion of the growing payments [...]