Pony Ma, the founder and CEO of Chinese internet giant Tencent, said Monday that he plans to donate 100 million of Tencent’s shares to the firm’s charity foundation. The shares in the Hong Kong-listed company closed at HK$165.70 a piece on the same day, which puts the donation at a market cap of about $US2.1 billion.
The shares will be donated through an unspecified period of time and will go towards supporting medical, educational and environmental causes in China through cooperation with charity programs and projects, the company announced.
Despite fevered economic growth, China lags behind when it comes to charity, partly due to China’s tradition of passing fortunes through a family line. An anecdote that best demonstrates this is that a great proportion of Chinese moguls turned down the invitation to a philanthropy dinner invite from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett in 2010 for fear of being asked to make a donation.
Start your free trial now.
Get instant access to all our premium content, archives, newsletters, and online community.
Monthly Membership
Yearly Membership
What you get
Full access to all premium content and our full archives
Members'-only newsletters
Preferential access and discounts to all TechNode events
Direct access to the TechNode newsroom
Start your free trial now.
Get instant access to all our premium content, archives, newsletters, and online community.