HONG KONG, March 20 Reuters China39;s Tencent Holdings posted a weakerthanexpected 7 rise in fourthquarter revenue on Wednesday as its gaming revenue shrank, and said it was expecting to at least double its share buybacks this year.

The world39;s largest video game company and operator of the WeChat messaging platform reported revenue of 155.19 billion yuan 21.56 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31.

That compared with the 157.2 billion yuan average of 23 analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.

Tencent39;s core gaming business suffered a notable slowdown in the fourth quarter. Gaming revenue in China declined 3 to 27 billion yuan, while international gaming revenue increased only 1 to 13.9 billion yuan, or declined by 1 when excluding currency fluctuations.

The company also said intends to at least double the size of its share repurchases from HK49 billion in 2023 to over HK100 billion 12.78 billion in 2024. Its shares had fallen some 16 over the past year to Tuesday39;s close.

In a call with media, Tencent president Martin Lau said the company saw a slowdown in gaming revenue last quarter partly because many zealous gamers had already spent on their games in the first quarter last year when China moved to lift all COVID19 restrictions.

As a result, Lau said the company39;s gaming revenue in the first quarter this year will also be soft as compared with last year.

But he said that Tencent has a pipeline of new games to boost its domestic revenue. Most notably,…