Tencent, JD.com invest in online retailer Vipshop

China’s tech giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and JD.com Inc will jointly invest $863 million in cash in Vipshop, the country’s discount online retailer, according to a statement on the official WeChat account of JD on Monday.

周一，据京东微信官方发布声明，中国科技巨头腾讯股份责任有限公司和京东有限公司共同投资8.63亿美元现金给国内促销(或折扣)线上零售商唯品会。

The transaction is expected to close in the near future, as Tencent and JD will purchase the newly issued Class A ordinary shares of Vipshop for $604 million and $259 million respectively, with $13.08 per American Depositary Share, at a 55 percent premium over the closing price of $8.44 the previous trading day.

这项交易预计不久将达成，届时腾讯和京东将分别以6.04亿美元和2.59亿美元购买新发行的贵宾级A类普通股，每股美国存托股13.08美元，比上个收盘价的$ 8.44高出55％。

Upon the transaction’s completion, Tencent and JD will take 7 percent and 5.5 percent stake of Vipshop, respectively.

交易完成后，腾讯和京东将分别持唯品会 7％和5.5％的股份。

Tencent hopes to assist Vipshop providing branded apparel and other products for China’s rising middle class with traffic, promotion and payment schemes, said Martin Lau, Tencent’s president. He added Tencent aims to establish a retail system combining the online and offline.

腾讯公司总裁刘炽平表示：“腾讯希望在客户流量、促销和支付等方面帮助唯品会为中国新兴的中产阶级提供品牌服装和其他产品。”他补充说，腾讯的目标是建立一个结合线上和线下的零售系统。

The investment comes after the Dec 11 announcement Tencent plans to buy a 5 percent stake in domestic supermarket operator Yonghui Superstores Co and take a 15 percent stake of a supply chain and logistics unit of the supermarket chain via a capital increase.

这项投资发生在12月11日腾讯宣布计划收购国内超市运营商永辉超市有限公司5％的股份，以期通过增资获得超市连锁供应链和物流单位15％的股权之后。

As JD’s May filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed, Tencent’s wholly-owned company Huang River Investment Limited is the largest shareholder of JD, with a 18.1 percent stake.

根据京东五月向美国证券交易委员会提交的文件显示，腾讯全资子公司黄河投资有限公司是京东的最大股东，并持有18.1％的股份。

The statement also said the shares purchased by Tencent and JD.com are supposed to lock up for two years, during which time Tencent and JD.com could appoint a board member and an observer, respectively, to Vipshop’s board of directors.

声明还表示，腾讯和京东认购的A类普通股会受到为期两年的锁定期限制。在两年的锁定期内，腾讯有权任命一位唯品会董事会成员，京东可以任命一位董事会的观察员。

Meanwhile, Vipshop’s chairman and CEO Shen Ya said in the statement his company will continue to operate as an independent e-commerce platform.

同时，唯品会主席兼CEO沈亚在声明中说，他的公司作为一个独立的电子商务平台将会继续运营。

Along with the equity investment, Tencent and JD have reached a cooperative agreement with Vipshop, which will allow Vipshop to utilize traffic from Tencent’s social platform WeChat via WeChat Wallet and grant Vipshop entry on the main page of JD.com’s mobile application.

随着股权投资，腾讯和京东已经与唯品会达成合作协议，允许唯品会通过微信支付利用腾讯社交平台微信的客户流量，并在京东手机应用主页上授予唯品会入口。

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来源:China Daily爱语吧作者:郑大远