Davis Polk & Wardwell and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom have the lead roles on Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s $736 million investment in Chinese online classifieds company 58.com Inc.
Shenzhen-based Internet giant Tencent is buying a 19.9 percent stake in 58.com, which operates a Craigslist-like website where users post advertisements for jobs, real estate listings and various other services.
The company currently has 130 million users in 320 Chinese cities. The deal will allow Tencent to integrate 58.com’s service with its own social networks, including the popular WeChat mobile application.
Davis Polk Hong Kong partners Miranda So and Kirtee Kapoor are advising Tencent on the deal.
Skadden Hong Kong partners Julie Gao and Will Cai are representing 58.com. Gao also advised the company on its $187 million initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange last October.
Tencent has made a number of e-commerce investments this year in the face of intensifying competition with rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. In March, the company paid $214.7 million for a 15 percent stake in JD.com, and then paid $1.3 billion for another 5 percent stake when JD.com went public last month. Also in March, Tencent paid $180 million for a 15 percent share in real estate website Leju Holdings Ltd., and in February paid $400 million for 20 percent of restaurant review site Dianping.com.
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*Correction, 7/2/14: A previous version of this story mistakenly referred to Will Cai as a Beijing partner at Skadden when in fact he works from Hong Kong. We regret the error.
