Chinese mapping company NavInfo and internet services group Tencent, along with Singapore wealth fund GIC have announced plans to acquire 10% stake in HERE.
HERE is a German-based open location platform company owned by automotive majors Audi, BMW and Daimler.
NavInfo and Tencent are also contemplating to form a strategic partnership to offer location services for the Chinese market.
After the completion of the acquisition, the stake owned by Audi, BMW and Daimler in HERE will be in equal amounts. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.
HERE CEO Edzard Overbeek said: “Our intention has been to broaden our shareholder base to reflect how location intelligence will fuel invention and expansion across different industries in all parts of the world.
“We are therefore excited to 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. We also welcome GIC as a financial investor who values the long-term prospects of the company.”
HERE and NavInfo are intending to form a 50/50 joint venture in China that offers location services in the local and international market across a range of industries. Through this cooperation, HERE would provide its maps and location services in China making use of a wide range of NavInfo data and services.
Through the joint venture, HERE and NavInfo plan to deploy and localise HERE’s Auto SDK for the Chinese market.
Both the companies plan to collaborate on the development of high definition mapping and location services for autonomous cars for their joint customer-base.
The companies are also planning to extend HERE’s range of Internet of Things solutions including fleet management, on demand services and asset tracking in the Chinese market through the joint venture.
NavInfo CEO Patrick Cheng said: “The automotive industry is on the eve of revolution to autonomous driving and alternative energy. We are excited about joining forces and uniting market leaders to deliver outstanding value and take our industry to the next level.
“NavInfo and HERE have a more than ten-year cooperation history, and are now both in transformation phase to extend our heritage in traditional navigation to intelligent location services and autonomous driving solutions for a global customer base.”
