Shares of Uxin, China's largest used car e-commerce company, surged over 14 percent around midday, after it announced a binding term sheet with Golden Pacer, a Chinese financial technology platform, to facilitate online financing and collect 100 million US dollars.
As of midday Friday, the company has been valued at over 789 million dollars in market capitalization.
Under the transaction, Uxin will divest its loan facilitation related business to Golden Pacer in exchange for an aggregate of 100 million dollars and a certain number of shares of Golden Pacer, according to a company statement on Friday.
More specifically, Golden Pacer will help facilitate loans for Uxin's online used car transactions, including providing a guarantee in the event of default, while Uxin will assist in inspecting and valuating Golden Pacer's used car financing transactions.
"After the divestiture and through the business cooperation with Golden Pacer, we will be able to focus all of our resources on online used car transactions," said Kun Dai, founder, chairman and CEO of Uxin, in the statement.
Dai also stressed the "tremendous growth potential" of China's used car market, adding that the company's cross-regional transaction services have made online purchase of second-hand vehicles a reality.
The two companies expect to enter into definitive transaction agreements and close the transaction "as soon as practicable in the second half of 2019."
Founded in 2011, Uxin provides selling and purchasing services on second-hand cars online and offline. Relevant services also include car inspection, title transfer, warranty, financing, and insurance.
So far, Uxin's online presence is supported by an offline network of more than 1,300 service centers in more than 400 prefecture-level cities throughout China.