Sequoia China Sells USD497 Million of Meituan to Go Down to 2.8% Stake
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Jul 15 2022
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Sequoia China Sells USD497 Million of Meituan to Go Down to 2.8% Stake Sequoia China Sells USD497 Million of Meituan to Go Down to 2.8% Stake

(Yicai Global) July 15 -- Venture capital giant Sequoia Capital China and its founder Neil Shen have once again cut their stake in Chinese takeout behemoth Meituan, earning about HKD3.9 billion (USD497 million).

The Chinese affiliate of California-headquartered Sequoia and Shen sold almost 21.1 million shares in the on-demand service provider for HKD185 (USD23.6) per share on July 8, reducing their stake to 2.8 percent from nearly 3.2 percent, according to information provided by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Beijing-based startup investor has been watching Meituan grow for more than a decade. Sequoia China invested in Dianping in 2006, and Meituan in 2010, according to public information. Meituan and Dianping merged later.

Sequoia China had a 12.5 percent stake in Meituan when it was listed. The financier has sold the platform's shares 10 times since 2021 for up to HKD17.8 billion (USD2.3 billion).

Meituan has been widening its losses amid a big push into new businesses such as group buying of groceries. In the first quarter, the company's net loss rose to CNY5.7 billion (USD843.3 million), up from the previous year's CNY4.9 billion. Its revenue surged 25 percent to CNY46.3 billion (USD6.9 billion) as takeout and tourism segments were growing.

Sequoia China has no intentions to scale down. The company recently registered a new batch of four US dollar funds with a scale of USD9 billion, aiming to invest in technology, consumption, and healthcare, according to its filing with the US bourse regulator.

VC firms should not only focus on stock prices. A challenging macro-environment will definitely affect many companies, but technological development has its own cycle, Shen said in an online broadcast on June 23. For example, in the past ten years, lithium batteries have been widely used in electric vehicles and energy storage due to safer performance and lower costs, he explained.

The timing of technological breakthroughs has little to do with the ebb and flow of the economy and requires a completely different skill set to anticipate emerging technological trends, which is an important part of Sequoia’s work, Shen concluded.

Meituan’s stock price [HKG: 3690] fell 1.8 percent to close at HKD179.20 (USD22.80) after rising 1.1 percent yesterday. The shares have slumped almost 40 percent in value in the past year.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi

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Keywords:   Meituan,Sequoia Capital China