Bitauto.com recently published an announcement, stating that the company's board of directors received a preliminary non-binding privatization proposal.

It is said that the privatization proposal is from a buyer group formed by Tencent and Hammer Capital, which offers to purchase all shares not yet held by the buyer group for USD16 per ADS in cash. At present, Tencent owns about 7.81% shares of Bitauto and Hammer Capital does not have any share of the target company.

Meanwhile, Bitauto said that their board of directors plans to set up an independent committee to evaluate the privatization proposal and they have not yet made any decision concerning the transaction. However, Li Bin, JD, and Cox Automotive Global Investments, who together own over 48.5% shares of Bitauto, agreed to vote for the transaction.

Bitauto was founded by Li Bin in 2000. The company was listed at NYSE in 2010, making it the first automobile Internet company listed in the U.S.

According to Bitauto's financial report for the second quarter of 2019 financial year, its operating revenue was CNY2.792 billion, which was about USD407 million; and it made net losses of CNY136 million, which was about USD19.8 million.