Tencent slide sees Naspers stock take 7% hit

Media and technology giant Naspers’ stocks fell sharply today on the back Chinese internet company Tencent taking a beating on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The South Africa-based company saw its stocks fall over seven percent following a five percent slide from Tencent earlier in the day.

It seems as if the Tencent fall is largely down to a fall in investor confidence on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as a whole. That lack of confidence may have been spurred by the banning of a number of US accounting companies from operating in China.

The ban came about because the companies in question failed to comply with orders to provide documents needed for a series of accounting fraud probes in the US. The decision had a direct impact on Chinese companies listed on US stock markets, with ecommerce outfit China Dangdang and search giant Baidu particularly hard hit.

Many believe Tencent’s rapid rise over the past few years to have been the making of the new-look online-focused Naspers. It’s considered one of the wisest investments made by CEO Koos Bekker and with good reason too. Until now, that’s been borne out by the South African-based company’s financials.

In the most recent set of results released by the company, Tencent alone was responsible for R4.4-billion (US$370-million) of its R27-billion (US$2.4-billion) in online revenue.