NetEase Q3 Results Climb, Plans $5 Bln Share Buyback; To End Deal With Blizzard; Stock Dips

(RTTNews) - NetEase, Inc. (NTES), a Chinese internet and online game services provider, on Thursday reported higher profit and revenues in its third quarter. The Board further approved a dividend and up to $5 billion share repurchase. As announced earlier, the company is also not renewing licenses with Blizzard Entertainment in China, which will expire in January.

In the third quarter, net income attributable to the shareholders climbed to RMB6.70 billion or $941.78 million from last year's RMB3.18 billion.

Basic net income per share was $0.29 or $1.44 per ADS, compared to $0.13 per share or $0.67 per ADS a year ago.

Adjusted net income totaled RMB7.47 billion or $1.05 billion, compared to RMB3.86 billion last year.

Adjusted basic net income per share was $0.32 or $1.61 per ADS, compared to $0.16 per share or $0.82 per ADS in the prior year.

Net revenues were RMB24.4 billion or $3.4 billion, an increase of 10.1 percent from prior year's RMB22.19 billion.

Further, the board of directors has approved a dividend of $0.0870 per share or $0.4350 per ADS for the third quarter of 2022.

The company also announced that its board has approved a new share repurchase program of up to $5.0 billion of the Company's ADSs and ordinary shares in open market transactions.

As previously disclosed, NetEase said its certain licensing agreements covering the publication of several Blizzard titles in Chinese mainland will expire in January 2023 and will not be renewed.

In Hong Kong, NetEase shares declined 9.1 percent to trade at HK$103.50.