TENCENT Holdings Ltd. has surpassed China Mobile Ltd. to become the country’s most valuable corporation, underscoring the growing importance of a vibrant private economy over lumbering State-owned firms.

    Tencent rose 4.2 percent to HK$210.20 in Hong Kong yesterday, reaching a market value of HK$1.99 trillion (US$256.6 billion), edging past China Mobile’s HK$1.97 trillion and putting the tech company in the ranks of the world’s 10 largest public companies, including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.

    Tencent’s shares have jumped fourfold in as many years by building a lead in mobile gaming and online advertising, surpassing a roughly 20 percent advance in the Hang Seng Index.

    The Shenzhen-based company’s rise exemplifies the new realities of the world’s second-largest economy, where smokestack industries prepare to lay off workers while younger companies such as e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. make inroads into everything from finance to media.

    Private businesses now play a pivotal role in hiring and innovation, and the best performers are spearheading China’s shift toward a consumption-led economy.

    “China’s economic restructuring is happening faster than many have expected,” said Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist for Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd.

    Services accounted for more than half of output last year for the first time, while consumption made up more than 70 percent of the expansion in the first half of this year. The rise of companies such as Tencent shows China can unlock still more of its growth potential by giving more market access to private companies and rolling back State monopolies, he said.

    Since 2006, the title of China’s most valuable company has been held mainly by government-controlled industrial heavyweights such as China Mobile, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. or PetroChina Co. Tencent arch-foe Alibaba also briefly held the title just after its 2014 debut.

    Chinese Internet sector stocks have been buoyed by the strategic importance the country now places on the sector. State-backed funds and enterprises are championing some of the biggest private investment rounds in companies such as Ant Financial and Didi Chuxing.

    Along with Alibaba, Tencent has now advanced to the vanguard of the private sector. The firm has beaten revenue and earnings estimates in all but one of the past six quarters. (SD-Agencies)