Three international investors have acquired a strategic holding in ChinaWeb Ltd, a mainland-based on-line financial company.
Announcing the deal in Beijing yesterday, the Securities Exchange Executive Council of China (SEEC) said the investor group was being led by US-based Talisman Capital and included the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and a Singapore-based consortium.
The majority shareholder in ChinaWeb is SEEC Investment, an affiliate of the SEEC, set up in 1989 by the mainland's nine biggest non-banking financial institutions.
In a statement ChinaWeb said: 'SEEC and ChinaWeb are honoured to have attracted such a prestigious and experienced investor group as strategic partners. We look forward to working closely with them to develop ChinaWeb as the premier on-line financial company in China.' SCMP chief executive Owen Jonathan said it was 'an exciting opportunity for the South China Morning Post to become a strategic investor in China's prime financial Web site.' 'ChinaWeb provides access to quality information on the economy and financial markets of China, adding further value to SCMP's acclaimed PostNet sites,' he said.
ChinaWeb is the majority shareholder of Homeway Infomedia Co Ltd and SEEC Information Technology Co Ltd. These two subsidiaries, known together as Homeway, provide a wide range of information on the mainland economy and financial markets.
Homeway was set up by the SEEC in 1995 as one of the first commercial Internet service providers and Internet content providers (ICP) in the mainland.
