Art e-Commerce Company HIHEY.COM Receives Series-B Investment

China Citic Securities and Shenzhen Capital Group to invest about US$100 million

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Nov 13, 2014, 08:08 ET

BEIJING, Nov. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- An advertisement on the large screen which overlooks New York's Times Square spelling out "the largest art e-commerce company" in Chinese characters stood out against all the others. The ad was issued by HIHEY.COM, the art trading website located in Beijing's 798 art gallery district. The website recently announced that it had received a series-B investment of about US$100 million from CITIC Securities and Shenzhen Capital Group after obtaining an equity investment from China Minsheng Banking Corporation.

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With the advice and help of capital and media experts, HIHEY.COM has experienced rapid growth since its inception. The shareholder lineup has been proven to be the strongest among all companies that started up in 2014. Both the strategic investment by China Minsheng Banking Corporation and the recent participation by CITIC Securities and Shenzhen Capital Group demonstrate the enormous attraction of the cultural and art segment as well as HIHEY's competitive advantages and strong growth in the art e-Commerce sector. As the largest private bank in China, China Minsheng Banking Corporation has proven itself highly innovative in its handling of the art finance business and in executing on corporate social responsibility. All steps taken by the bank, including the first fund dedicated to investing in works of art, the first non-profit art museum sponsored by a financial institution and the first private bank art club, are revolutionizing the way that the financial and art worlds interact with each other. CITIC Securities, with assets of 271.4 billion yuan (approx. US$44.2 billion), is the largest broker in Asia. Shenzhen Capital Group is the largest Chinese state-controlled venture capital investment group. With a conservative but highly precise investment modus operandi, the group has 30 billion yuan (approx. US$4.9 billion) under management and has successfully invested in 98 venture capital backed IPOs. It has been named by zero2ipo.com as the No.1 venture capital firm in China for five consecutive years. HIHEY.COM has taken it upon itself to break the industry's unspoken rules and bring stability to the art market via its open and transparent network platform, while creating value for its clients through ongoing technological innovations. As a result of these efforts, the company was not only the first art firm to obtain venture capital investment but is also the art e-commerce platform with the strongest shareholder lineup.

Creating an art world where everyone and anyone can be a collector

Founded in 2011, HIHEY.COM, the leading online art market, is a comprehensive one-stop-shop for the promotion and sale of works of art. Every category of art object is available and a full range of transaction services is offered. The realization of the initial goal of transforming the art world by moving it into an Internet ecosystem and having the sale of artworks be handled online has brought about transparency in pricing and fairness in transactions. HIHEY, by enabling artists to display their wares through online channels, has provided career opportunities and support for tens of thousands of artists and allowed them be able to not only survive but to also thrive in their artistic endeavors. Meanwhile, HIHEY's safe and convenient online art transaction platform helps newly wealthy Chinese discover leading new-generation artists. The firm's VIP clients are all leaders across a wide range of industries, with entertainment barons such as Wang Changtian, Guo Jingming, Wang Zhongjun, Xu Xiaoping and Shen Lihui, as well as C-suite executives and managers at leading financial companies including Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley all steadfast fans of the website. With the fast-growing Chinese economy, HIHEY is creating a world where everyone and anyone can be an art collector.

The Internet and the worlds of art and finance join hands to create a world-class art transaction platform

Relying on the backgrounds and resources of its shareholders, the HIHEY team will provide basic services for artwork transactions and provide financial support for the art industry through the mobile Internet, an "offline to online" (O2O) ecosystem for the promotion and sale of works of art as well as the creation and management of art funds. The spirit of innovation, the professionalism of the team, the strong backgrounds of the shareholders and the implementation of leading technologies will help maintain HIHEY.COM's leading position in development and growth of the overall online art transaction market. The new ecosystem creates an efficient, open and free art sharing platform for artists, galleries, auction houses as well as purveyors and collectors from the traditional art market, and, at the same time, provides a new experience as for how artists and collectors interact with other.

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