A quiet stock exchange announcement this week showing a slight reduction in leading online travel agent Trip.com’s (TCOM.US; 9961.HK) longtime stake in rival Tongcheng Travel Holdings Ltd. (0780.HK) barely attracted any notice in Hong Kong. The sale itself was tiny, dropping Trip.com’s stake in Tongcheng to 25.99% from a previous 26.14%, according to the filing. Tongcheng’s Hong Kong-listed shares were largely unchanged after the announcement came out.

In fact, it doesn’t even appear that Trip.com actually sold any shares, since the size of the company’s Tongcheng holdings in terms of actual shares appeared to remain the same before and after the sale. And a person close to the companies later explained the reduction was due to dilution as more Tongcheng shares were added due to employee stock grants.

But in the current climate, where China’s market regulator is pressuring big internet companies to divest their holdings in other companies, the announcement still highlights that Trip.com’s might under pressure to sell down some or all of its stake in its rival. At the same time, Hong Kong Stock Exchange filings show a similar reduction in the Tongcheng stake held by another internet giant, Tencent (0700.HK), whose holding dropped to 21.98% in the second half of 2020 from a previous 22.93%. The person said that stake reduction was also due to a similar dilution.