Tencent investment exec quits amid Chinese gaming industry turmoil

[BENGALURU] Tencent Holdings Ltd executive Jonathan Lai, who led the company's investments into Western digital entertainment firms, has left to join a New York-based investment manager, according to his LinkedIn profile.

His exit comes at a time when Tencent is reeling from a Chinese crackdown on online gaming that seeks to limit the number of new online video games and restrict the time young people spend playing games. The firm has lost more than a fifth of its market value this year.

Tencent, involved in a high-stakes rivalry with China's other home-grown tech giant Alibaba Group Holding, has stakes in companies including Tesla Inc, Chinese retailer JD.com and San Francisco-based mobile game developer Glu Mobile Inc.

Lai's team at Tencent was responsible for making investments into companies in the United States and Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal that first reported the news of his exit from Tencent.

Lai's LinkedIn profile showed he was with Tencent for a little over three years. He will be investing in games, video and music technology companies at his new employer Coatue Management, according to the profile.

Coatue has investments in Activision Blizzard Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Spotify Technology SA, as per its latest regulatory filing.

Tencent did not respond to requests for comment, while Coatue declined to comment.

Lai was not immediately reachable for comment.

REUTERS