Tencent Music’s board of directors has approved a programme that could see the now-public company repurchase up to $400m of shares over the next 12 months. “The Share Repurchase Program reflects the Board’s confidence in the fundamental and long-term potential of the Company’s business,” said CEO Cussion Pang. “Our strong financial position and cash generating ability not only enable us to continue to invest in our long-term sustainable growth, but also return value to our shareholders.”
Tencent Music is not the first music-streaming company to make such a move. In late 2018, Spotify began its own stock-repurchasing programme of up to $1bn of shares. Unlike the 12-month window for Tencent, the Spotify repurchase programme stretches until 21st April 2021. Tencent Music currently has a market cap of $20bn, compared to Spotify’s $26bn.
Tencent Music’s most recent financial results, for the third quarter of 2019, revealed that it now had 35.4 million paying music subscribers, a 42.2% year-on-year increase, out of 661 million mobile monthly active users for its online music services.
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