Tencent, Alibaba may double in price in 5-10 years: fund manager

Boston

OPPENHEIMERFUNDS' Justin Leverenz owes a lot to Tencent Holdings Ltd. The stock, which he started accumulating in 2007 when it traded for about HK$6 (S$1) or about 1/60th of its current price, has helped make his emerging-market mutual fund the biggest in the world.

Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd - China's other Internet giant and another top holding at Mr Leverenz's US$37.9 billion Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund - could double in price over the next five years to 10 years as they expand worldwide, according to Mr Leverenz. Not "the investing opportunity of a lifetime" that Tencent once presented, the fund manager said, but not too shabby. "These companies have the capacity to go global and change the world," he said in a telephone interview from New York.