Three Asian Investors to Buy 10% Stake in Digital Map Maker HERE
December 27 2016 - 8:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Sloat
Internet services group Tencent Holdings Ltd., NavInfo Co. and
Singaporean fund GIC plan to buy a joint 10% stake in digital
mapping company HERE from Germany's premium car makers, HERE said
on Tuesday.
The companies didn't disclose a price. As part of the deal, HERE
plans to create a joint venture with Chinese mapping company
NavInfo, extending its services to China using NavInfo's data.
Tencent, also based in China, will look into using HERE's mapping
and location platform services in its own products and services,
HERE said.
The German car makers that own HERE -- Daimler AG, BMW AG and
Volkswagen AG's Audi AG unit -- bought the mapping company from
Nokia Corp. last year for roughly 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion),
aiming to build a platform for autonomous cars that would compete
with Alphabet Inc.'s Google.
Digital maps will be essential for self-driving cars, which
require precise, up-to-date information about a vehicle's
surroundings. HERE's services include maps for nearly 200 countries
alongside other data, which it provides to the makers of navigation
devices and cars as well as websites and apps.
"We...welcome NavInfo and Tencent both as strategic investors
who share our vision of the future and as partners with whom we
will create attractive new services for the Chinese market," HERE
Chief Executive Edzard Overbeek said. Singapore sovereign wealth
fund GIC is a financial investor, he said.
The car makers began approaching potential partners soon after
buying HERE in mid-2015, and over the past months have said they
were in talks with numerous investors to broaden the shareholder
base, including Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other auto
makers. HERE wasn't immediately available for further comment.
The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to
close in the first half of 2017.
Write to Sarah Sloat at sarah.sloat@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 27, 2016 07:48 ET (12:48 GMT)
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