Property giant City Developments Limited (CDL) will invest HK$237.81 million (S$41 million) in a real-estate service provider's initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong.
The move will make CDL a cornerstone investor in E-House alongside e-commerce firm Alibaba, China state-owned Overseas Chinese Town Holdings and an associate company of Hong Kong-based Henderson Land Development.
E-House's main operations comprise real-estate agency services, data consultancy and property brokerage.
CDL said in a statement yesterday that E-House is "widely regarded as China's pre-eminent real estate transaction service provider".
The firm has a sales force of 17,000 agents in 186 cities across 30 Chinese provinces.
Its key business of marketing residential projects generated revenue of 3.9 billion yuan (S$797 million) last year, CDL added.
The IPO price for E-House's stock will be determined in the coming days and is expected to be between HK$14.38 and HK$17.68.
CDL is expected to subscribe for 13.45 million to 16.54 million shares.
Its group chief executive, Mr Sherman Kwek, said he sees "strong potential in E-House's growth".
"Aside from investing in residential, commercial and mixed-use projects in Shanghai, Suzhou and Chongqing, the next logical step was to invest in the nation's (China's) top sales agency with an extensive network of agents and a deep, robust database for purposes of research and analytics," he added.
CDL shares closed six cents higher at $9.68 yesterday.