Hillhouse, FountainVest target China jobs site Zhaopin

The consortium is in advanced discussions with Zhaopin over a bid of $18 per American Depository Share (ADS), according to a filing. The price is higher than those offered last year by two separate groups, one backed by CDH Investments and the other by Sequoia Capital. Zhaopin’s shares closed up 6.75% at $16.92 on February 17 – the highest level in nearly two years – following disclosure of the negotiations.

Seek had a 61.3% stake in Zhaopin as of December 2016 and held 74.6% of the voting power. It built up a controlling interest in the business between 2006 and 2013, providing an exit for the likes of iD TechVentures, Legend Capital, Orchid Asia and Macquarie Capital. An IPO followed in 2014, which raised $87 million.

Formed in 1994, Zhaopin claims to be the market leader in China's online career-related services industry, with over 120 million registered users. As of June 2016, the company had 83.6 million resumes in its database; 27,000 resumes added on average on a daily basis during the preceding 12 months. Over the same period, over 36.9 million jobs were posted on the platform by 509,813 unique customers.

Zhaopin generated revenue of RMB1.54 billion ($232 million) in 2016, up from RMB1.29 billion the previous year, while net profit increased to RMB284.1 million from RMB252.6 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Buyouts
• Technology
• China
• Fountainvest Partners
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• CDH Investments Management
• Sequoia Capital
• TMT