Wanda E-commerce, a Chinese e-commerce platform, raised approx. $161m in new funding.
Centec Networks (3% stake) and Xude Rendao (2% stake) made the investment.
Formed last year as a joint venture between Wanda, Tencent and Baidu, Wanda E-commerce has now a $3 billion valuation.
The Press Release
WUHAN, China, Jan. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — On December 29, 2014, two overseas internet investment funds offered 1 billion yuan for a 5% stake in Wanda E-commerce, quadrupling the value of the 4 month-old business to 20 billion yuan. This record investment for a newly established e-commerce company shows how highly Wanda E-commerce is regarded by the general public.
The two investment funds, Centec Networks and Xude Rendao, will hold a 3% and 2% equity interest in Wanda E-commerce, respectively. The investors are fully confident in the “Tencent-Baidu-Wanda” partnership and their O2O business model.
Wanda E-commerce was established in Hong Kong with a registered capital of RMB 5 billion after Wanda, Tencent and Baidu announced their partnership at a signing ceremony in Shenzhen on August 2014. Wanda Group controls a 70% stake in the venture, while Tencent and Baidu each hold a 15% stake. The partnership announced an investment of 20 billion yuan over 5 years, aiming to build the world’s largest O2O E-commerce company. Following the investment, Mr. Wang Jianlin and Wanda Commercial (HK03699) will each hold a 35% stake in Wanda E-commerce respectively, and will remain as controlling shareholders in the company.
As one of their four core industries, Wanda Group places a great deal of importance on the e-commerce sector. On December 26, 2014, Wanda Group acquired a controlling stake in China’s fourth ranked online payment platform 99Bill, assuming control of an important payment platform to advance its e-commerce and finance related businesses. This acquisition, in tandem with free Wi-Fi coverage and pilot beacon technology trials completed, a large data center in construction, and dozens of O2O software services under development, means Wanda E-commerce is setting a strong pace for O2O and is expected to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2015.
FinSMEs
05/01/2015