China’s Tencent has reported a rare drop in net profit as the company’s cash engine of gaming was dented by reforms to bureaucratic oversight that have in effect frozen the licensing of new games since March.
That contributed to a 2 per cent year-on-year drop in profit attributable to shareholders to Rmb17.87bn. Revenues also fell short of analyst expectations — already lowered in recent months — at Rmb73.67bn, a year-on-year rise of 30 per cent.
Shares in the tech giant, which has been usurped by arch-rival Alibaba as Asia’s most valuable company, have been battered since a peak of HK$473.58 in January, with some $170bn scythed off its market value in that time.