Primavera Capital and Zhaopin Management Made Strategic Investment in Zhaopin to Deepen its Presence in China's Human Resource Management Market

BEIJING, Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A Consortium of investors ("The Consortium") led by Primavera Capital Group ("Primavera") today announced that it entered into an investment agreement ("the Transaction") with SEEK International Investment ("SEEK"). Under the agreement, the Consortium will make a strategic investment in Zhaopin, which upon completion will result in the Consortium owning 76.5% of the stake in Zhaopin with Primavera becoming the largest shareholder and SEEK owning the remaining 23.5%. The Consortium consists of Primavera, Zhaopin's existing shareholder FountainVest Partners and Zhaopin Management.

The Transaction marks Primavera's strategic move to increase its exposure in the human resource management sector. William Wang, one of the Founding Partners of Primavera said, "Primavera has a long-standing strategic focus on the new and high growth industries that address public needs in China. The transformation of China's economy, the increasing structural contradiction between supply and demand in human capital, and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic have presented enormous challenges on China's human resource management market. Zhaopin has managed to seize the opportunities brought by the emerging online employment trend and the rapid adoption of SaaS model in the post-pandemic era, delivering solid performance and demonstrating the management's long-term vision and capabilities. We are pleased to partner with the top player in this sector and are fully committed to supporting its future growth and to delivering long-term success."

Commenting on the Transaction, SEEK CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Bassat said, "We are very proud of our journey with Zhaopin. When we first invested 15 years ago Zhaopin was a loss-making and distant number three player. Our long-term approach combined with the strong management team led by Evan Guo has transformed Zhaopin into a market leader across many key metrics and it now generates strong cash flows. The Consortium will play an important role in helping Zhaopin to deliver on its long-term growth strategy."

Evan Guo, CEO of Zhaopin, indicated Primavera's strategic investment will further strengthen Zhaopin's capabilities in the local market and enable its continuous investments in smart algorithm-driven technology and professional services, which will provide full-fledged solutions and deliver maximum value for Zhaopin's individual and corporate customers.

Samantha Xiao, Managing Director of Primavera, added, "With the support of the management team and other shareholders, Primavera will help Zhaopin unlock greater value. Our investment portfolio includes leading businesses across a wide range of industries and sectors. We believe Zhaopin fits well in our investment ecosystem, which can help to enhance the company's technological capabilities and to further its business. We will contribute to the vision of Zhaopin to become an integrated human resources management platform, incorporating value-added services in recruitment, career development, and employee compensation and benefits."

As the leading online recruitment platform, Zhaopin has 230 million individual users, 6.16 million corporate customers, 6.3 million daily active users and 7.8 million daily job postings on average. After 26 years of development, Zhaopin has transformed from an online recruitment website to a career development platform and further now evolved to an ecosystem for talents. The company has also accelerated its investment in algorithm technology to elevate its communications efficiency and intelligent matching. At the beginning of 2021, Zhaopin unveiled a new corporate vision of "Let Value be Seen", showcasing its commitment to offering more caring and effective human resource solutions.