Chinese language tech group Tencent reversed two successive quarters of income declines and stated it was “properly positioned” to profit from the ending of the nation’s zero-Covid coverage.

The tech group posted quarterly income of Rmb145bn ($21bn) within the three months to December, a 0.5 per cent enhance from the identical interval a yr earlier and in keeping with analysts’ forecasts. Tencent’s internet revenue rose 19 per cent to Rmb29.7bn, barely above analysts’ estimates.

Chief govt Pony Ma struck an optimistic tone on Wednesday, saying the corporate was positioned to “profit from” a “rebound in China[’s] financial progress which our customers’ exercise suggests is now underneath manner”.

The corporate’s gross sales had been subdued to the top of 2022 as China emerged from zero-Covid restrictions, however its fintech arm has since skilled “double-digit progress” within the first quarter of this yr as customers headed again to the outlets as China reopened.

Ma’s upbeat tone comes after Beijing communicated to buyers that it was easing its regulatory crackdown on its web giants in a bid to advertise progress.

Tencent, China’s most respected firm by market capitalisation, has been downsizing its web empire after regulators pressured it to scale back the dimensions of its footprint in a broader anti-monopoly crackdown. Throughout its previous monetary ends in November, Tencent introduced it will divest most of its $22bn stake in supply service Meituan to supply a dividend for shareholders. On the finish of 2022, the worth of Tencent’s shareholdings in its portfolio listed firms was $84bn.

“In 2022, we did job decreasing prices and rising efficiencies. In 2023, we are going to proceed on this route. It’s essential to scale back fats and enhance muscle,” Ma stated.

Tencent has been ramping up funding in Channels, the quick video perform embedded in its ubiquitous tremendous app WeChat, after falling behind the surging reputation of ByteDance’s Douyin platform, the sister app of TikTok. That funding has seen time spent on WeChat video accounts triple in 2022 in contrast with the earlier yr, the corporate stated on Wednesday.

Whereas Tencent’s home gaming income fell 6 per cent to Rmb27.9bn, its acquisitions of abroad gaming studios helped income from worldwide gaming develop 5 per cent to Rmb13.9bn, pushed by the success of the favored Valorant and League of Legends franchises.

“Video games progress was stable, and higher than anticipated fourth-quarter billings progress ought to bode properly for revenues firstly of 2023,” stated Robin Zhu, China web analyst at Bernstein. He added that there was a “optimistic trajectory” in Tencent’s abroad gaming, regardless of overseas forex headwinds within the fourth quarter, which pushed down income from the sector.

Tencent purchased again Rmb12bn of shares in its fourth quarter.

It additionally introduced that its president and prime dealmaker Martin Lau would rotate off the board at its annual assembly this yr, however he would stay as president and chair of the funding committee.