SHANGHAI, March 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- E-House
(China) Holdings Limited
("E-House")(NYSE: EJ), a leading real estate services company in
China, Leju Holdings Limited
("Leju"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of E-House and a leading
provider of real estate online services, and Tencent Holdings Limited ("Tencent", SEHK stock code: 00700), a leading
provider of comprehensive Internet services in China, announced that Tencent will acquire from E-House 15% of the
equity interests on a fully diluted basis in Leju for US$180 million. The transaction is expected to
close by the end of this month.
Tencent will also subscribe
additional shares in Leju's proposed initial public offering to
maintain its 15% equity interest on a fully diluted basis.
"I'm very excited to have Tencent
as Leju's strategic partner and investor," said Mr. Xin Zhou, E-House's co-chairman and chief
executive officer. "Tencent's investment in Leju demonstrates its
recognition of Leju's success in O2O real estate e-commerce. We
strongly believe in the opportunities in this vast and growing
market. By leveraging Tencent's powerful Weixin, we will continue
our push to establish a leading mobile-based, real estate
e-commerce platform. We also look forward to deepening and widening
our strategic cooperation with Tencent in the coming years."
Mr. Martin Lau, President of
Tencent, said "We are delighted to
invest in and cooperate with Leju. Our strategic partnership will
bring Leju's rich real estate information to Weixin users, enable
Leju to better connect with our users through Official Accounts,
and expand our payment solution to Leju's user base. We look
forward to collaborating with our partners in building a prosperous
ecosystem for the Internet industry."
China Renaissance and Credit Suisse acted as financial advisers
to E-House on this transaction.
About E-House
E-House (China) Holdings
Limited ("E-House") (NYSE: EJ) is China's leading real estate services company
with a nationwide network covering approximately 255 cities.
E-House offers a wide range of services to the real estate
industry, including online advertising and e-commerce, primary
sales agency, secondary brokerage, information and consulting,
offline advertising and promotion and real estate investment
management services. E-House has received numerous awards for its
innovative and high-quality services, including "China's Best Company" from the National
Association of Real Estate Brokerage and Appraisal Companies and
"China Enterprises with the Best Potential" from Forbes.
For more information about E-House, please visit
http://www.ehousechina.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: Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These
statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These
forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as
"will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans,"
"believes," "estimates," "may," "intend," "confident," "is
currently reviewing," "it is possible," "subject to" and similar
statements. Among other things, the quotations from management in
this press release, as well as E-House's strategic and operational
plans, contain forward-looking statements. E-House may also make
written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed or
furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
including Forms 20-F and 6-K, in its annual report to shareholders,
in press releases and other written materials and in oral
statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third
parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including
statements about E-House's beliefs and expectations, are
forward-looking statements and are subject to change.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and
uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual
results to differ materially from those contained, either expressly
or impliedly, in any of the forward-looking statements in this
press release. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are
not limited to, a severe or prolonged downturn in the global
economy, E-House's susceptibility to fluctuations in the real
estate market of China, government
measures aimed at China's real
estate industry, failure of the real estate services industry in
China to develop or mature as
quickly as expected, diminution of the value of E-House's brand or
image, E-House's inability to successfully execute its strategy of
expanding into new geographical markets in China, E-House's failure to manage its growth
effectively and efficiently, E-House's failure to successfully
execute the business plans for its strategic alliances and other
new business initiatives, E-House's loss of its competitive
advantage if it fails to maintain and improve its proprietary CRIC
system or to prevent disruptions or failure in the system's
performance, E-House's failure to compete successfully,
fluctuations in E-House's results of operations and cash flows,
E-House's reliance on a concentrated number of real estate
developers, natural disasters or outbreaks of health epidemics and
other risks outlined in E-House's filings with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press
release is current as of the date of this press release, and
E-House does not undertake any obligation to update any such
information, except as required under applicable law.
For investor and media inquiries please contact:
E-House:
In China:
Investor Relations
E-House (China) Holdings
Limited
Phone: +86 (21) 6133-3937
E-mail: ir@ehousechina.com
Derek Mitchell
Ogilvy Financial, Beijing
Phone: +86 (10) 8520-3073
E-mail: ej@ogilvy.com
In the United States:
Justin Knapp
Ogilvy Financial, U.S.
Phone: +1 (616) 551-9714
E-mail: ej@ogilvy.com
Tencent:
Jane Yip
Phone: +86 (755) 8601-3388 ext. 81374 or +852 3148-5100
E-mail: janeyip@tencent.com
Jerry Huang
Phone: +86 (755) 8601-3388 ext. 65333
E-mail: yuntaohuang@tencent.com
SOURCE E-House (China) Holdings
Limited
