Chinese Tech Giants Launch Aggressive Share Buy-Backs to Boost Investor Confidence

Chinese tech giants including Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding, Meituan, and Xiaomi have launched aggressive share buy-back programmes to revive investor confidence amid continuing scepticism towards the sector, while analysts suggest that a bottoming out could soon be in sight.

Plagued by stock prices that have hit alarming lows in recent trading cycles, the tech heavyweights are leaning on massive share repurchase programmes and high-profile appearances by company leaders to boost market confidence.

“With solid net cash positions and outstanding buy-back programmes, we expect companies to accelerate the buy-back pace,” Citi Research analysts said in a recent note.

Tencent Holdings repurchased nearly HK$10 billion (US$1.27 billion) of its own shares in June, marking its largest monthly buy-back this year. Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding spent more than US$50 million on share repurchases last week alone.

Food delivery giant Meituan also disclosed a fresh buy-back of nearly HK$200 million on Monday and Tuesday. That came after the company’s founder and CEO Wang Xing addressed the company’s sluggish market valuation head-on at its annual general meeting last Friday, acknowledging that its recent stock performance has been unsatisfactory.

Backing up his words, Meituan’s CFO Chen Shaohui said the company would accelerate plans for share buy-backs in a bid to stabilise the stock. Wang added that the company also aimed to boost market confidence by other measures, including cashing out external investments.