Tencent Holdings Ltd, China’s leading Internet firm by revenue, on Tuesday denied a newspaper report that it plans to list its popular Weixin, or WeChat, mobile messaging app as a spin-off company in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Citing an unnamed source, the China Daily earlier reported that Hong Kong-listed Tencent opened an office in Singapore to deal with a listing, which it originally planned to hold in Hong Kong. The report gave no timeframe or other listing details.<\/p>\n
“This market news is not true,” said Jerry Huang, a spokesman for Tencent.<\/p>\n
Tencent, led by CEO and Chairman Pony Ma and more than 30 percent owned by South African media group Naspers Ltd, is due to announce second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The company has invested heavily in WeChat as it and other Chinese Internet companies such as Alibaba Group and Baidu Inc try to broaden their revenue streams.<\/p>\n
With more than 300 million users in China, WeChat – which is similar to WhatsApp and South Korean firm Kakao Inc’s KakaoTalk – has strong potential earnings power for Tencent, which is looking to monetize the app. It last week released an updated app introducing games, paid-for emoticons and a mobile payment system.<\/p>\n
Shares in Tencent, valued at $88 billion, rose as much as 1.5 percent in early trade, but by the midsession were trading down 0.05 percent at HK$367.20. The broader Hang Seng index was up 0.7 percent.<\/p>\n
($1 = 7.7556 Hong Kong dollars)<\/p>\n
Battle of the messaging apps<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Tencent triples active chat users<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n