SHENZHEN-BASED social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. said Friday it hasn’t bought new shares in ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc. since it went public in the United States last year. A U.S. regulatory filing Thursday appeared to show that Tencent added around 1.78 million Didi Class A ordinary shares at the end of last year, bringing its stake in Didi to 7.4 percent. But a Tencent spokesperson said Friday that these were shares Tencent already had that were previously undisclosed. Tencent, which operates the WeChat messaging platform, had not acquired more stock in Didi since its debut in June, the spokesperson added. Tencent owned 78.85 million of Didi’s Class A shares as of Dec. 31, up from 77.07 million shares disclosed at the time of the IPO, the filing showed. Tencent’s Class A shareholding stood at 7.4 percent as of the end of December. Didi has shed US$47 billion of market value since Chinese regulators launched an investigation in July, citing data security concerns. In December, Didi said it would delist from the New York Stock Exchange and make plans to go public in Hong Kong instead. Tencent has been more circumspect about its investments recently and has looked to pare back stakes in companies rather than increase them. (SD-Agencies) | 