Tencent, GIC, BlackRock Raise Stakes in China’s Weimob

(Bloomberg) -- Tencent Holdings Ltd., Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and BlackRock Inc. increased their stakes in Weimob Inc. through a share sale that’s said to have netted $180 million.

Weimob, which has a market value of about $1.2 billion, will use the proceeds to bankroll technology development, it said in an emailed statement. The six-year-old company, which went public in Hong Kong this year, helps businesses fine-tune their online commerce and marketing strategies. It’s now expanding its business in targeted marketing, product displays and payment processing. Tencent is an existing backer, a relationship Weimob has leveraged to help small businesses market across the internet giant’s social networking platforms.

Weimob’s shares have jumped 63% since its January initial public offering, vastly outpacing an 8% rise for the Hang Seng Index. It employs more than 2,800 and has signed up 2.8 million registered merchants, according to a company filing in July.

--With assistance from Crystal Tse, David Ramli and Bei Hu.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan

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