(Yicai) Oct. 9 -- Chinese tech behemoth Tencent Holdings has reached almost 90 percent of its HKD100 billion (USD12.9 billion) annual share repurchase target, after carrying out one more buyback move yesterday.

Tencent yesterday spent HKD700 million (USD90.1 million) to repurchase nearly 1.6 million shares, bringing this year’s total to HKD89 billion (USD11.4 billion), according to information on the platform of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As of yesterday, the Shenzhen-based company had a total of 9.28 billion shares, compared with 9.61 billion at the end of 2021, because it removed about 330 million shares after buying them back.

Tencent expects to at least double its share buyback plan to over HKD100 billion this year from HKD49.4 billion last year, the firm said in its 2023 annual report published in April. It repurchased HKD2.6 billion (USD335 million) worth of shares in 2021 and HKD33.8 billion in 2022.

Tencent started aggressively buying back shares after its largest shareholder Prosus, a subsidiary of South African investment firm Naspers, began reducing its equity in 2022. Prosus sold 37.4 million shares of Tencent in the second quarter and 31.6 million ones in the third quarter, with the shareholding ratio falling to 24.2 percent.

Tencent’s stock [HKG: 0700] closed down 1.1 percent at HKD433.80 (USD55.80) today. It has soared 12 percent since China’s central bank introduced a stimulus package to boost the economy.

The average price of the shares repurchased by Tencent was HKD378.40 in the third quarter of the year, up 4.5 percent from that in the second quarter.

As of Sept. 30, 239 Hong Kong-listed companies had bought back their shares this year for a total amount of more than HKD200 billion. Tencent repurchased over 40 percent of the bourse’s total.

Editor: Futura Costaglione