September 2 -- The founder and chairman of Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), Ma Huateng, sold five million shares of the Internet company at an average price of HK$144.25 per share on August 29, reports yicai.com, citing Hong Kong media reports. Ma obtained HK$721.6 million from the stake sale.

Following the transaction, Ma’s shareholding in Tencent fell from 10.61 percent to 10.33 percent, with the total number of shares held by Ma reduced to 188.89 million shares.

Based on yesterday's closing price of HK$187.6 per share, Ma's shareholding was worth about HK$35.44 billion.

According to industry insiders, the share sale was related to Ma's adoption of the collar option strategy, by which Ma had to sell a total of 10 million shares in March and April this year to option buyers at a price of HK$67.806 per share.

Shares of Tencent were down 1.76 percent to trade at HK$184.3 per share at 9:53 today