Shareholder confirms investment talks between Tencent, JD.com

A shareholder of JD.com, China's second-largest B2C online platform by market share, confirmed that Tencent Holdings Ltd has been talking to JD.com since mid 2013 about making an equity investment in the e-commerce company, said a report from Brightwire.

A source with DST, a Russian investment group, which holds an 11.2 percent stake of the Beijing-based e-commerce company, said that Liu Qiangdong, chief executive officer of JD.com, opposes the proposed investment from Tencent while the company's smaller shareholders tend to approve it.

"They have not reached an agreement yet. Its founder Liu Qiangdong intends to develop independently," the source told Brightwire, a global investment newswire in New York.

Neither Tencent nor JD.com has confirmed the possible investment. Media reports showed that JD.com has had nine rounds of financing, which is estimated at a total of $2.6 billion.

Liu, who holds 23.67 percent of the company through his holding firms Max Smart Ltd and Fortune Rising Holdings Ltd, is the company's largest shareholder. Tiger Global Management, which holds 22.1 percent, is the second-biggest shareholder.

The company filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan 30 and is expected to raise up to $1.5 billion on the US stock market.

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