Tencent offloads stake in British challenger bank

WeChat owner ditches 14pc share in Tide amid retreat from international investments

The Chinese tech titan Tencent has cashed in its stake in the British challenger bank Tide as part of a retreat from international investments.
Tencent has offloaded its shares in the fintech, which specialises in accounts for small businesses, to an unknown buyer or buyers.
The owner of the dominant Chinese “everything app” WeChat has been a prolific dealmaker over the past decade, taking stakes in start-ups across China and the West. However, its activity has slowed in recent months.
Tencent Cloud Computing, the Chinese company’s cloud division, reduced its 14pc stake in Tide to zero in April,  according to a recent company filing.
It is unclear who bought Tencent’s stake although Tide ran a secondary share sale earlier this year allowing early investors to cash out.
Such sales are becoming more common among tech start-ups as they are tending to stay private for longer. Europe’s most valuable fintech, Revolut, recently told staff it is to allow them to sell shares at a $45bn (£35bn) valuation.
Tide, founded in 2015, offers bank accounts and related financial services to 575,000 small and medium enterprises in the UK, India and Germany.
Chaired by City grandee Sir Donald Brydon, it employs 1,600 people and has been backed through several fundraising rounds by the likes of Apax Partners, a private equity firm, and Japan’s SBI Group.
Tencent became a prolific investor in UK fintechs in recent years as part of a global push to back hundreds of tech companies.  It has taken stakes in fintech start-ups such as Previse and Monzo, where it recently led a £340m fundraising round valuing Monzo at $4bn.
Despite being largely successful in navigating the East and West tensions which have befallen other Chinese companies like Alibaba and Huawei, it has sought to curtail its takeover activity. 
In 2022 the group became more cautious about investing inside China after a crackdown on tech companies, forcing it to look overseas for deals. 
The value of deals completed by Tencent fell from its $20bn in 2018 to $6bn last year, according to figures from PitchBook.
Tencent was founded in 2001 and is run by founder Pony Ma. It is listed on the Hong Kong stock market, and the company’s largest shareholder is Dutch company Prosus, which is controlled by South African tech conglomerate Naspers.
The company most recently reported quarterly revenue of 159.5bn yuan (£17.2bn) for the three months ending March 2024, up 6pc from the same period last year.  Net profits rose to 62pc to 41.8 billion yuan.
Tide and Tencent did not comment.