BEIJING, Jan. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitauto
Holdings Limited ("Bitauto" or the "Company") (NYSE: BITA), a
leading provider of Internet content and marketing services for
China's fast-growing automotive
industry, JD.com, Inc. ("JD.com", Nasdaq: JD), the leading online
direct sales company in China and
Tencent Holdings Limited
("Tencent", SEHK: 00700), a leading
provider of comprehensive Internet services in China, today jointly announced that they have
entered into definitive agreements pursuant to which JD.com and
Tencent will make investments in
Bitauto totaling approximately US$1.3
billion in cash and resources, and investments totaling
US$250 million in cash in YiXin
Capital Limited ("YiXin Capital"), a subsidiary of Bitauto
primarily engaged in e-commerce-related automotive financing
platform business. Upon completion of the transactions, the three
companies will work together to provide enhanced online automotive
transaction services to car buyers across China.
Under the terms of the agreements, JD.com will invest a
combination of US$400 million in cash
and approximately US$750
million of resources, including exclusive access to the
new and used car channels on JD.com's e-commerce sites including
mobile apps and additional support from its key platforms, as
consideration for a total of approximately US$1.15 billion of newly issued ordinary shares
from Bitauto. Tencent will also
purchase US$150 million of newly
issued ordinary shares from Bitauto. Bitauto's newly issued
ordinary shares will be priced at US$73.31 per share, corresponding to US$73.31 per American Depositary Share of
Bitauto, each representing one ordinary share. The purchase price
represents the average closing trading price of Bitauto's ADSs for
the twenty trading days prior to the signing of the agreements. In
addition, JD.com and Tencent will
invest US$100 million and
US$150 million, respectively, in
newly issued series A preferred shares of YiXin Capital.
The transactions are expected to close in the first half of
2015, subject to customary closing conditions, after which
JD.com and Tencent will hold 25% and 3.3% of the
Company's outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis,
respectively, and JD.com will have one seat on Bitauto's board of
directors. JD.com and Tencent will
hold 17.7% and 26.6% of YiXin Capital, respectively, upon
closing.
"As China's leaders in world-class e-commerce, social media and
big data, we could not ask for partners more ideally positioned to
support Bitauto than JD.com and Tencent as we build out China's leading platform for automotive
e-commerce," said William Bin Li,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bitauto. "We are deeply
honored to form an in-depth strategic partnership with these two
companies. In the months ahead, we will aggressively invest to
solidify Bitauto's industry leadership and build market share. We
are confident about the outlook of our automotive e-commerce
business. Our goal has always been to provide China's new and used car customers with the
best possible car purchasing experience."
Mr. Richard Liu, founder,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JD.com, commented, "This
landmark deal will bolster Bitauto's position as China's leader in the auto e-commerce space,
while providing JD.com customers an outstanding gateway to the car
market. This investment is a major step forward in our long-term
strategy of partnering with industry leaders in the vertical
categories most important to our customers. Through strategic
partnerships with trusted companies like Bitauto and Tencent, we are building our vision of making
JD.com a one-stop solution for Chinese consumers looking to buy
authentic, high-quality products."
Mr. Martin Lau, President of
Tencent, added "With the pooled auto
e-commerce resources of Bitauto and JD.com and our extensive user
base and analytics and auto-related media assets, we collectively
can build an efficient online platform to facilitate online
automotive transactions and provide one-stop financing solutions to
auto buyers in China. We look
forward to collaborating with them to better serve users and expand
our catalogue of online-to-offline service offerings."
About Bitauto Holdings Limited
Bitauto Holdings Limited (NYSE: BITA) is a leading provider of
Internet content and marketing services for China's fast-growing automotive industry.
Bitauto manages its businesses in four segments: the bitauto.com
advertising business, the EP platform business, the taoche.com
business, and the digital marketing solutions business. The
Company's bitauto.com advertising business offers automakers and
dealers a variety of advertising services through its bitauto.com
website, which provides consumers with up-to-date new automobile
pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews and
consumer feedback. The Company's EP platform business provides
web-based integrated digital marketing and customer relationship
management (CRM) applications to new automobile dealers in
China. The platform enables dealer
subscribers to create their own online showrooms, list pricing and
promotional information, provide dealer contact information, place
advertisements and manage customer relationships to help them
effectively market their automobiles to consumers. The Company's
taoche.com business provides listing services to used automobile
dealers that enable them to display used automobile inventory
information on the taoche.com website and partner websites. The
Company provides advertising services to used automobile dealers
and automakers with certified pre-owned automobile programs on its
taoche.com website. The Company's digital marketing solutions
business provides automakers with one-stop digital marketing
solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online
public relations, online marketing campaigns and advertising agent
services.
For more information, please visit ir.bitauto.com.
About JD.com, Inc.
JD.com, Inc. is the leading online direct sales company in
China. The Company strives to
offer consumers the best online shopping experience. Through its
content-rich and user-friendly website and mobile applications,
JD.com offers a wide selection of authentic products at competitive
prices and delivers products quickly and reliably. The Company
believes it has the largest fulfillment infrastructure of any
e-commerce company in China. As of
September 30, 2014, JD.com operated 7
fulfillment centers and a total of 118 warehouses with an aggregate
gross floor area of approximately 2.3 million square meters in 39
cities, and 2,045 delivery stations and 1,045 pickup stations in
1,855 counties and districts across China, staffed by its own employees. The
Company also provided same-day delivery standard in 130 counties
and districts under its 211 program and next-day delivery in
another 815 counties and districts across China.
For more information, please visit ir.jd.com.
About Tencent
Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet
users. Every day, hundreds of millions of people communicate,
share experiences, consume information, seek entertainment, and
shop online through its integrated platforms. Tencent's
diversified services include QQ, Weixin and WeChat for
communications; Qzone for social networking; QQ Game Platform for
online games; and QQ.com for
information. Tencent was founded in Shenzhen in
1998 and went public on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of
Hong Kong Limited in 2004. Tencent has been one of
the 50 constituent stocks of the Hang Seng Index since June
10, 2008, under stock code 00700. Tencent seeks to
evolve with the Internet by investing in innovation, providing a
hospitable environment for its partners, and staying close to its
users.
For more information, please visit www.tencent.com/ir.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These
statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S.
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as
"will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans,"
"believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Among
other things, the quotations from management in this announcement
contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements
involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could
cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in
any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to, those
included in Bitauto's and JD.com's filings with the SEC and
Tencent's filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All
information provided in this press release is as of the date of
this press release, and none of Bitauto, JD.com and Tencent undertake any duty to update such
information, except as required under applicable law.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
Bitauto
IR Department
Suki Li Tel: (86) 10 68492145,
Email: ir@bitauto.com
Brunswick Group LLP
Rachael Layfield Tel: (86) 10 59608600, Email:
bitauto@brunswickgroup.com
JD.com
Investor Contact
Ruiyu Li Tel: (86) 10 58955597
Email: ir@jd.com
Media Contact
Josh Gartner Tel: (86) 10 58959315
Email: josh@jd.com
Tencent
Investor
Contact
Catherine Chan Tel: (86) 755
86013388 ext 88369/ (852) 3148 5100 Email: cchan@tencent.com
Angie Chang Tel: (86) 755 86013388
ext 73951/ (852) 3148 5100 Email: angiechang@tencent.com
Media Contact
Canny Lo Tel: (86) 755 86013388 ext 66630/ (852) 3148 5100 Email:
cannylo@tencent.com
Limin Chen Tel: (86) 755 86013388
ext 56011 Email: liminchen@tencent.com
LOGO -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150109/168073
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitauto-jdcom-and-tencent-announce-strategic-partnership-300018383.html
SOURCE Bitauto Holdings Limited