Guazi, one of China’s major second-hand car trading platforms, will likely receive up to US$1.5 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund in a deal that is already in late-stage negotiations.
After the deal, the Beijing-based startup will be valued at US$8.5 billion, multiple times higher than its rival Uxin, which is listed on NASDAQ and had a market capitalization of about US$1 billion as of closing Friday.
Although people informed on the talks revealed that the deal may be announced within the next few weeks, uncertainty still exists as Guazi is currently in a spat with Uxin, which claims that Guazi has faked its trading data.
Guazi later denied that claim. However, the company was fined RMB 12.5 million (US$1.85 million) last November by Beijing’s commercial authorities for misleading the public in an ad that said it was “way ahead of its rivals in terms of trading volume”.