1894
« on: January 22, 2016, 11:05:12 am »
China’s Ele.me, a food-delivery startup backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., plans to close a funding round of at least $1.25 billion by as early as mid-February in a deal led by competitor Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Alibaba will be Ele.me’s controlling shareholder after the funding, which values the service at about $4.5 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The deal could be announced by the Lunar New Year holiday that starts Feb. 8, one of the people said. Ele.me was in merger talks with group-buying site Meituan.com, but those fell apart, the people said.
Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu Inc.are competing for supremacy in a local-services industry primed for growth as more people turn to their smartphones or the Web to order food, schedule beauty treatments or hire domestic helpers. Users of those services could rise 29 percent to 400 million by next year, with sales expected to reach 7.28 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion).
Chinese companies have been involved in $91.6 billion of acquisitions and investments in the Internet industry in the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.