Baihe finds perfect match in match-making website merger

Jiayuan.com turns its stand into a traditional bridal chamber of China at the country's 2013 Internet Forum in Beijing on Aug 14, 2014.?[Photo/IC]

China's two leading match-making websites jiayuan.com and baihe.com announced a merger late Monday.

LoveWorld, a subsidiary of Baihe will buy Jiayuan for $7.56 per American depository share (ADS), a total value of $252 million.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016. Jiayuan executive Wu Linguang will become co-executive of the new company which will undergo a name-change.

Jiayuan.com International, the largest online dating platform in China, said that after the acquisition, the company will pull out of the US Nasdaq market and become a private company.

Jiayuan received a?buyout offer in March due to poor share performances. Baihe already quit listing overseas before listing on China's New Third Board on Nov 20.

It is the first time that a domestic company listed on the New Third Board is acquiring a Chinese company that has received a buyout offer.?

The acquisition price is a 62.9 percent premium on March 2 (the day before the first buyout offer emerged) ADS closing price.

Jiayuan received a privatization offer from Vast Profit Holdings on March 3 that proposed to fully acquire its outstanding ordinary shares. The offered price was revised to $7.20 per ADS from preliminary $5.37 per ADS.

Shares of Jiayuan closed at $7.34, up 4.8 percent on Monday.