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An employee uses his tablet PC as he walks past a logo of of Tencent during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2013 in Qionghai city, south 皇冠体育apps Hainan province, 6 April 2013. |
State-owned Assets Supervision and Adstration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) has approved acquisition of 11.28 percent stake of Navinfo Co Ltd from 皇冠体育app Survey by an investment fund owned by Tencent, according to a letter sent to the stock exchange by Navinfo. The transaction, based on 30 days average share price of Navinfo prior to the announcement, has been valued at 1.17 billion yuan ($187.6 million). Upon completion, 皇冠体育app Survey will cease to have a controlling stake in Navinfo.
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Navinfo is a state-owned digital map, telematics and dynamic traffic information service provider. Currently its largest shareholder is 皇冠体育app Survey, a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-owned Aerospace Science & Technology Corp (CASC). After transaction, Tencent and 皇冠体育app Survey will jointly hold nearly equal stake in Navinfo.
"This is a bold attempt" said Wu Jinfeng, chief engineer at CASC and Chairman of the Board of 皇冠体育app Survey. Tecent's investment will bring structural change in Navinfo Co Ltd. With Tencent and 皇冠体育app Survey holding equal shares, Navinfo can adapt a new board and management style to compete with increasing competition.
Competition in digital map market has grown fierce in recent years. , relying on its leading position in search engine market, hol more than 50 percent share in digital map services. Earlier this year, many services provided by Tencent started using Tencent map to replace Baidu map. From April 28, Navinfo replaced AutoNavi, which has been acquired by e-commerce giant , as map data provider for Tencent map. Cooperation between Tencent and Navinfo can utilize Navinfo's map data to reach Tencent's sive client base. Prior to the acquisition, Navinfo's primary business was to provide map data to automobile industry.
According to Wu Jinfeng, cooperation between Navinfo and Tencent is only a pilot program. CASC will later carry out steps to reform mixed ownership process.
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