Ride hailing service Didi Chuxing and Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of e-commerce group Alibaba, have begun discussions to jointly acquire China-based, corporate-backed bicycle rental service Ofo, Reuters reported today.
The prospective deal would value Ofo at up to $2bn, a source with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters, adding that the price could fall if the due diligence process indicates its financial results will be lower than expected.
Ofo’s dockless bicycle sharing platform has more than 200 million registered users but the company is going through a difficult period at present, having withdrawn from six countries and drastically cut down its US service in the past month.
The company has raised more than $2.2bn in equity funding, most recently in an $866m series F round led by Alibaba and backed by Ant Financial, metal components manufacturer Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital and Junli Capital in March this year.
However, Ofo has increasingly turned to other means of fundraising and has secured some $360m in debt financing in the past few months by mortgaging its bikes.
News of the negotiations follows a report by Chinese news service 36Kr earlier this week stating that Didi Chuxing was in talks to acquire Ofo for $1.5bn. Alibaba and Ant Financial are both investors in Didi Chuxing as well as Ofo.
Alibaba and private equity firm Hony Capital co-led Ofo’s $700m series E round, which included Didi Chuxing, Citic Private Equity and DST Global, in July 2017. Ant Financial had invested an undisclosed amount in the company in April 2017.
Ofo had previously raised $450m in a series D round led by DST Global that also featured Didi Chuxing, Citic PE, Matrix Partners and Coatue Management the month before at a valuation of about $1bn.
Didi Chuxing had first invested in Ofo as part of its $130m series C round in late 2016, participating alongside Citic PE, Matrix Partners, Coatue Management, GSR Ventures, Vision Plus Capital and Yuri Milner.