Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Didi Chuxing signed a strategic agreement with Symphony Investment and other leading investment institutions in the Middle East to establish an innovative industry partnership across the Mena region and China. The parties will set up a joint venture headquartered in Abu Dhabi, with an aim to promote sharing economy and internet consumer services in the region. Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi is evaluating joining the consortium to help expand DiDi in the region.

The agreement was signed at the UAE-China Economic Forum, which was organised by the UAE Ministry of Economy and co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC. HE Zhong Shan, Minister of Commerce of the PRC, and HE Sultan Bin Saeed Almansoori, Minister of Economy of the UAE, attended the signing ceremony.

Economic ties between the Middle East and China continue to strengthen. China is the second largest trading partner of the Mena region, and bilateral cooperation has expanded from commerce to finance, manufacturing and advanced technology.

Technology and business development in China’s AI industry has created new opportunities for international cooperation on innovation. The investment institutions in this partnership will actively partner up with leading Chinese technology companies to leverage their respective strengths, facilitate resource sharing and bring new technology and operational advantages to stimulate economic growth and local business innovation in the region.

As the first stage of this multi-level collaboration, the partners will work closely to deliver better products and services to consumers to promote the sharing economy ecosystem and further contribute to economic development and collaboration between China and the Mena region.

Symphony Investment is funded by a group of leading multi-national companies in the Middle East. These companies have formed the largest business ecosystem in the region, with broad regional and international influence in industry and commerce.

Among them, Emaar Properties is a Dubai-based conglomerate with business operations in properties, hotels, entertainment and e-commerce; noon is the largest e-commerce platform in the Middle East; Aramex is the leader in the region’s logistics sector; and Americana Group is one of the largest food manufacturing and distributing companies in the region.

Didi Chuxing (DiDi) is the world’s leading mobile transportation platform. The company offers a full range of app-based transportation options for 550 million users, including Taxi, Express, Premier, Luxe, Bus, Designated Driving, Enterprise Solutions, Bike Sharing, E-bike Sharing, Car Rental and Sharing and food delivery. Tens of millions of drivers who find flexible work opportunities on the DiDi platform provide 10 billion passenger trips a year.

DiDi is committed to collaborating with policymakers, the taxi industry and communities to solve the world’s transportation, environmental and employment challenges with smart transportation innovations.

The company is working with a growing alliance of car industry players to build out a next-generation auto-solutions and operations platform. Currently, DiDi provides ride-hailing services in Brazil under the 99 brand, operates DiDi-branded mobility services in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Australia, and provides taxi-hailing service in Japan through a joint venture. By continuously improving user experience and creating social value, DiDi strives to build a safe, open and sustainable mobile transportation ecosystem.

Didi Chuxing Technology is a transportation company headquartered in Beijing.[6][7][4] The company provides app-based transportation services, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, social ride-sharing and bike sharing; on-demand delivery services; and automobile services, including sales, leasing, financing, maintenance, fleet operation, electric vehicle charging and co-development of vehicles with automakers. In 2018, DiDi’s platform had 550 million users and tens of millions of drivers.

Symphony Investment Partners (SIP) is a boutique international advisory group focused on providing strategic advice to companies from a wide variety of industries.

The Group has specialised expertise in international distribution, manufacturing, financing and consumer branding with over 100 years of training and experience to help management choose and execute the best course of action. Our dedicated mission of offering personalised strategic advisory services enables SIP to service our clients with a full range of strategic and financial alternatives, analytical tools and objective counsel.

We offer a broad range of solutions to fit our clients strategic and financial needs, including licensing strategies and implementation, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and buyouts for middle market firms.