Internet company Tencent is set to acquire an 11.3% stake in China-based digital map provider NavInfo for $187m, according to a stock market filing.
The deal will follow the $1.4bn purchase last month of another China-based navigation company, AutoNavi, by e-commerce company Alibaba, Tencent’s main rival in the Chinese internet space.
Tencent will buy 78 million shares from China Siwei Surveying & Mapping Technology, the state-owned business that is NavInfo’s parent company, leaving Siwei with a 12.6% share. Siwei will however remain NavInfo’s largest individual shareholder.
Founded in 2002, NavInfo originally provided maps for mobile navigation before expanding into the vehicular navigation market.
The company claims to be China’s largest digital map company and the fourth largest worldwide, and has made several acquisitions, including a 49% stake in NAV2, a service owned by Nokia subsidiary Here, in November 2013.