Yesterday$Tencent (00700.HK) $Declare an interim dividend and distribute JD.com shares worth hundreds of billions of dollars to shareholders. This rare move shows that Tencent is adjusting his strategy, giving back to shareholders in an ingenious way and unbinding with the invested companies.

After the dividend, Tencent's equity stake in JD.com has been reduced from 17% to 2.3%, the voice among JD.com shareholders has been reduced, and Tencent President Liu Chiping will step down as a director of JD.com.

This dividend is about 3% of Tencent's market value. Tencent shareholders can directly hold JD.com shares, sell them or stay in their hands, and have room for independent operation.

In general, companies tend to hold wealth in their hands, and to split it out is to reduce the resources they can control and reduce their influence. Many overseas listed companies give back to shareholders through a high proportion of dividends, generally this kind of company has developed more mature, and its performance is not likely to rise significantly. Companies such as Tencent, which are good at identifying opportunities and have been in a period of expansion, are not happy to split the cash. Tencent is good at using equity tools and motivates employees mainly through equity. Tencent has 200 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents, the company's main business is very healthy, the cash flow is good, there is a good chance that there will be no shortage of money in the future. However, companies such as Tencent should still tend to keep a considerable amount of cash in their hands, and holding cash attracts more public attention than holding equity.

At the beginning, Tencent handed over the poorly managed e-commerce business to JD.com to hold JD.com 's equity, which can be said to be a wise move, bringing good returns to shareholders, and the two sides spent a period of time of mutual achievement. However, the environment has changed a lot. At the beginning, the main background of the investment was that the giants were scrambling to expand, and the investment in JD.com had the need to curb the strategic layout of competitors. In the context of anti-monopoly, it should be a trend for giants to choose to focus on the main business. Prior to this, Tencent's equity proportion in Digital Guangdong decreased significantly, and the merger of HUYA Inc. and DouYu International Holdings Limited did not pass the antitrust review.

JD.com is just a pearl in Tencent's investment chest. Tencent has invested in thousands of companies so far, many of them are industry leaders. In addition to China, Tencent has also invested in many overseas game companies and Internet enterprises, and many of them have performed well in the capital market.

Tencent has huge investment assets and lies on Tencent's financial statements. Now Tencent intends to transfer such assets to shareholders, which is good for shareholders, but there are also disadvantages, which means that the ability of investment-driven growth is weakened.