Tencent Acquires Stake in Thai Internet Firm
Hong Kong Exchange, 8/26/10
Chinese internet firm Tencent (0700.HK) today announced that on August 26, 2010, its wholly-owned subsidiary New Kingdom Limited entered into a share purchase agreement with M-Web Thailand Holdings B.V. to acquire a stake in Mweb Holdings (Thailand) Limited, which operates Thai internet services company Sanook.
Pursuant to the share purchase agreement, New Kingdom has agreed to (i) purchase from M-Web 2,496 shares of Sanook, representing 49.92% of its outstanding share capital, for USD 10.5 mln (HKD 81.70 mln) and (ii) assume from M-Web a 50% interest in the shareholder loan. Tencent will appoint two members of the board of directors and will have the right to propose candidates for CEO of Sanook.
M-Web currently holds 99.84% of the outstanding share capital of Sanook, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Naspers Limited. Naspers Limited is also the holding company of MIH China, a substantial shareholder of Tencent. As such, under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules, M-Web Thailand Holdings is a connected person of Tencent and entering into the share purchase agreement constitutes a connected transaction. As one of the relevant percentage ratios prescribed under the Listing Rules exceeds 0.1% but is less than 5%, the connected transaction is exempt from independent shareholders' approval requirements but is subject to reporting and announcement requirements of the Listing Rules.
Sanook currently engages in a variety of Internet-related businesses, including portal, Internet advertising, instant messaging, mobile value-added services, e-commerce, online classifieds and casual games.
Keywords: overseas Sanook Naspers Internet Tencent Thailand 0700.HK M&A
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