Recruiting in China

Macquarie Capital and Seek, one of the largest Australian recruitment Internet companies, have jointly announced plans to invest money into the Chinese online job recruitment website Zhaopin.com, which was started by expatriates over ten years ago.

Macquarie will buy a 29.1% stake in Zhaopin.com, while Seek will pay USD45 million to increase its stake from about 25% to near 43% on a fully diluted basis. Early in 2006, Seek invested USD20 million into Zhaopin.com.

Liu Hao, CEO of Zhaopin.com, is quoted by the Reuters that this round of investment will meet the demand of Zhaopin.com for future development. Liu says that the investment is only a financial investment and Macquarie Group and Seek will not participate in the operation of the company. Zhaopin.com will maintain long-term independent decision-making power.

According to Zhaopin.com, the finances will mainly be used to hire new workers and to supply better services to customers, but it will not be used for acquisitions. In addition, it will expand its business in China's second-tier cities is the company's another focus.