Leju, E-House, and Alibaba Join Forces

Many companies turn to real estate as their next lucrative endeavor, and they’ll reach out to other likeminded companies for support as they dip their toes into the property industry.

Leju Holdings’ Executive Chairman Xin Zhou, has entered a number of agreements with E-House China Enterprise Holdings Limited, to acquire 56.19% interest in the issued share capital of Leju, making it a majority holder. Coming with it is Alibaba Group Holding Limited, which had recently entered a strategic partnership with E-House to offer online-offline real estate transactions, digital marketing, and after-sale services. 

Alibaba, which is a multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, internet, and technology, will aid E-House and Leju in the building of an online real estate marketing platform and digital transaction network. E-House will operate the online transaction services and Leju will be in control of the digital marketing services. 

One the partnerships, Zhou said:

"In the process of collaborating with E-House and Alibaba to build an online real estate marketing and transaction platform, Leju will leverage its experience in online marketing and transaction service and become the service provider for digital marketing and operation on the platform. This will greatly enhance Leju's core value and competitiveness."

Agreement between Leju and E-House include: 

• Purchase of 49,686,192 ordinary shares and 2,239,804 ADSs (each representing one ordinary share) of Leju from the Zhou Parties
• Issuing to the Zhou Parties 166,918,440 of E-House’s ordinary shares
• 24,438,564 ordinary shares
• 36,687 ADSs (each representing one ordinary share) of Leju from the SINA Parties
• Issuing to the SINA Parties 78,676,790 E-House Shares

Once the transaction of these shares is completed, Leju will become an official subsidiary of E-House. 

Alibaba has agreed to subscribe for E-House Shares to be issued by E-House, increasing Alibaba’s stake in the company to around 8% and 13.26% of the issued share capital of the company, becoming the second-largest shareholder of E-House.