BEIJING and SHENZHEN, China, March
9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- JD.com Inc. ("JD"), a leading
online direct sales company in China and Tencent Holdings Limited ("Tencent", SEHK stock code: 00700), a
leading Internet company serving the largest online community in
China, have formed a strategic
partnership aimed at providing superior eCommerce services to
mobile and Internet users in China.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140309/CN79666 )
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130422/CN98601LOGO
)
The strategic partnership enables JD to tap Tencent's
significant mobile and Internet user base, and Tencent to leverage JD's best-in-class eCommerce
services to offer superior user experiences. JD will become
Tencent's preferred partner for all physical goods eCommerce
businesses. Mr. Martin Lau,
President of Tencent, will join JD's
Board of Directors. The transaction represents a landmark
strategic partnership in the large and fast growing eCommerce,
mobile and Internet industries in China.
As part of the transaction, JD will acquire 100% interests in
Tencent's QQ Wanggou B2C and PaiPai C2C marketplace businesses,
logistics personnel and assets, a minority stake in Yixun, and will
enter into a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent. In addition, JD has the right to
acquire the remaining stake of Yixun in future. As part of
the strategic cooperation, Tencent
will support JD's growth in the physical goods eCommerce business
by offering level 1 access points in Weixin and Mobile QQ, and
support from other key platforms to JD. Both parties
will also cooperate on online payment services to improve users'
online shopping experience.
In connection with the transaction, JD will issue new shares to
Tencent. Initially, Tencent will hold approximately 15% in JD upon
closing of the transaction. Furthermore, Tencent will subscribe at IPO price for an
additional 5% of JD on a post-IPO basis. The IPO subscription is
expected to close concurrently with JD's IPO.
"Through this strategic partnership with Tencent in key areas, such as mobile access
points, traffic support and eCommerce activities, we hope to
enhance our ability to provide high quality and enjoyable shopping
experience to a broader and growing user base while strengthening
our direct sales and marketplace businesses on mobile and
Internet," said Mr. Richard Liu,
founder, Chairman and CEO of JD.com Inc. "I extend a warm welcome
to colleagues from Tencent in joining
our JD family."
Mr. Martin Lau, President of
Tencent, said, "We are pleased to
combine our thriving and fast growing eCommerce initiative with
JD's in this strategic partnership, and support them to further
grow and provide even better eCommerce services to our collective
users. Our strategic partnership with JD will not only
extend our presence in the fast-growing physical goods eCommerce
market, but also allow us to better develop our enabling services
such as payment, public accounts and performance-based advertising
network to create a more prosperous ecosystem for overall eCommerce
activities on our platforms."
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and China Renaissance acted as
financial advisers to JD on this transaction. Skadden, Arps,
Slate, Meagher & Flom acted as international counsel and Zhong
Lun Law Firm acted as PRC counsel to JD.
Barclays Bank PLC acted as financial adviser to Tencent on this transaction. Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as international
counsel and Han Kun Law Firm acted as PRC counsel to Tencent.
About JD
JD.com, Inc. is the leading online direct sales company in
China. Through our content-rich and user-friendly website
www.jd.com and mobile applications, we offer a wide selection of
authentic products at competitive prices and deliver products in a
speedy and reliable manner. As of December 31, 2013, we offered approximately 25.7
million SKUs of products on our website and had approximately 247
million product reviews generated by our customers. We
believe we have the largest fulfillment infrastructure of any
e-commerce company in China. We
operated 82 warehouses with an aggregate gross floor area of over
1.3 million square meters in 34 cities and 1,453 delivery stations
and 209 pickup stations in 460 cities across China, staffed by 18,005 delivery personnel,
8,283 warehouse staff and 4,842 customer service personnel, and we
provided same-day delivery in 31 cities and next-day delivery in
additional 206 cities across China
as of December 31, 2013.
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 our integrated
platforms. Our diversified services include QQ, Weixin and
WeChat for communications; Qzone for social networking; QQ Game
Platform for online games; QQ.com for information; as well as our
eCommerce services.
Our company was founded in Shenzhen in 1998 and went public on the Main
Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 2004. The
Company has been one of the 50 constituent stocks of the Hang Seng
Index since June 10, 2008, under
stock code 00700. We seek to evolve with the Internet by
investing in innovation, providing a hospitable environment for our
partners, and staying close to our users.
For more information, please visit www.tencent.com/ir.
Media Contact
JD:
Josh Gartner
Brunswick
Group
Tel: +86 10 5960 8600
Email: JD@brunswickgroup.com
Tencent:
Jane Yip
Tel:
+86 755 8601 3388 ext 81374 or
+852 3148 5100
Email: janeyip@tencent.com
Jerry Huang
Tel:
+86 755 8601 3388 ext
65333
Email: yuntaohuang@tencent.com
SOURCE JD.com
