New Leshi Smart Home, the smart TV affiliate of conglomerate LeEco, has received $437m in funding from investors co-led by e-commerce group JD.com and internet company Tencent, the Financial Times has reported.
The round featured 10 participants including consumer electronics manufacturers Lenovo and TCL, real estate developer Evergrande and, according to China Money Network, property developer Sunac China Holdings and retail group Suning Holdings.
New Leshi Smart Home manufactures internet-connected television sets and markets them under the LeTV Super TV brand.
The deal, first rumoured last week, was closed alongside a $2bn investment by an unnamed Hong Kong-based private investor in Faraday Future, a US-based electric vehicle manufacturer launched by LeEco’s founder and former chairman, Jia Yueting, at a $4.4bn valuation.
Sunac had previously paid $1.2bn for a 33.5% stake in New Leshi Smart Home in January 2017. The size of its shareholding will be reduced to 28.2% following the latest round.
LeEco has been struggling financially since Jia stepped down in 2017 and moved to California to focus on Faraday Future. He has since ignored a summons from regulator China Securities Regulatory Commission to return home.
Sunac chairman Sun Hongbin took on the same role at LeEco following Jia’s departure, but resigned himself last month.
Sun revealed at the time that Sunac’s total of $2.2bn investment in three LeEco units also including Leshi Pictures and Leshi Internet Information and Technology had proven to be a failure and he could not turn around the heavily indebted companies.