BEIJING, April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitauto Holdings Limited ("Bitauto" or the "Company") (NYSE: BITA), a leading provider of Internet content and marketing services for China's fast-growing automotive industry, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to establish a joint venture (the "JV"), with Pangda Automobile Trade Co., Ltd ("Pang Da Group"), one of China's leading automotive dealership groups, and Youxin Internet (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd. ("UXIN"), a leading used car electronic auction service provider in China.

The joint venture will solidify the leading position of Bitauto's proprietary used car website, taoche.com, by providing high-quality used car listings and expanding the website's inventory of available-for-sale used cars. Building on Bitauto's existing competitive barriers within the used car ecosystem, the partnership will help grow Bitauto's already leading share of China's nascent used car transaction market. The JV will also help bring much-needed vehicle valuation services to market.

"Bitauto is delighted to cooperate with Pang Da Group and UXIN," said Mr. William Bin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Bitauto. "China's used car market is rapidly growing yet remains under-served. By ramping up the depth and variety of the used car inventory on our taoche.com platform, the joint venture will ultimately help us to better serve the market by providing used car buyers with easy access to the best selection of used cars available on the market when searching for their perfect cars. We are confident this approach will further drive traffic to taoche.com, ensuring it remains the go-to website for used car listings in China. We also expect this JV to strengthen our existing competitive advantages in the used car industry. By building on our long-term used car strategy, we look forward to solidifying our position as a leading player in the used car market and to stay instrumental in driving forward the development of China's used car industry."

Mr. Qinghua Pang, chairman and general manager of Pang Da Group commented, "We are pleased to be partnering with Bitauto and UXIN to further promote our auto dealers and ultimately, support the development of their businesses. As a leading network of auto dealerships, we have access to a vast pool of used vehicle information. This joint venture will provide our auto dealerships with more effective marketing activities and help promote our customers' used car inventory to a broader group of potential buyers."

Mr. Chris Kun Dai, chairman and chief executive officer of UXIN added, "This is an exciting partnership and one which we are extremely pleased to be involved in. The shift towards online used car sales is growing and our partnership with Bitauto and Pang Da Group promotes this trend. Through the joint venture, we look forward to bringing our leading online auction platform and technology to more auto dealers. Helping dealers enhance their online used car sales services will not only improve their revenue but also push forward new developments in China's online used car market."

About Bitauto Holdings Limited

Bitauto Holdings Limited (NYSE: BITA) is a leading provider of Internet content and marketing services for China's fast-growing automotive industry. Bitauto manages its businesses in four segments: the bitauto.com advertising business, the EP platform business, the taoche.com business, and the digital marketing solutions business.

The Company's bitauto.com advertising business offers automakers and dealers a variety of advertising services through its bitauto.com website, which provides consumers with up-to-date new automobile pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews and consumer feedback. The Company's EP platform business provides web-based integrated digital marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) applications to new automobile dealers in China. The platform enables dealer subscribers to create their own online showrooms, list pricing and promotional information, provide dealer contact information, place advertisements and manage customer relationships to help them effectively market their automobiles to consumers. The Company's taoche.com business provides listing services to used automobile dealers that enable them to display used automobile inventory information on the taoche.com website and partner websites. The Company provides advertising services to used automobile dealers and automakers with certified pre-owned automobile programs on its taoche.com website. The Company's digital marketing solutions business provides automakers with one-stop digital marketing solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online public relations, online marketing campaigns and advertising agent services.

For more information, please visit ir.bitauto.com.

About Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd.

Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd. is a domestic Chinese automobile dealership group and is ranked among China's top 500 companies. With a registered capital of over RMB2.6 billion, the automobile company is present in 1,429 locations across 28 provinces and autonomous regions in China and Mongolia, including 1,153 auto dealerships (of which 754 are 4S-authorized auto dealers) and 276 market places.

About Youxin Internet (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd.

UXIN is the leading professional electronic auction service provider for used cars in China. The company's core product "Youxinpai.com" is an online auction platform providing a one-stop service offerings, which include online auctions, vehicle evaluations, safe payment methods, after-sales services and long-distance logistics support. The online sales platform provides the most effective used cars auction services to authorized auto dealers, used car dealers and car owners.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Bitauto does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Bitauto undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

China

IR Department
Bitauto Holdings Limited
Tel: +86-10-6849-2145
ir@bitauto.com

Rachael Layfield
Brunswick Group LLP
Tel: +86-10-5960-8600
bitauto@brunswickgroup.com

New York

Cindy Zheng
Brunswick Group LLP
Tel: +1 (415) 671 7676
bitauto@brunswickgroup.com 

SOURCE Bitauto Holdings Limited