Ouyeel announces new round of financing

Ouyeel Co Ltd, the third-party, business-to-business platform established by China's largest steel maker, China Baowu Steel Group, has received more than 2 billion yuan ($291.3 million) in its second round of equity financing.

This represents the largest single round of financing for a business-to-business enterprises specializing in a commodity.

Ouyeel is one of the China's ten State-owned-enterprises pioneering mixed ownership reform.

In May 2017, the company opened its shares to institutions and people by raising more than 1 billion yuan in capital, according to Zhao Changxu, Ouyeel chairman. After this round of financing, Baowu and its affiliated companies' stake in Ouyeel will lower to about 60 percent.

Eight new shareholders including investment institutions and strategic investors will now further diversify Ouyeel's ownership as an integration of State-owned, private-owned, foreign capital as well as individual employees.

Ouyeel reached 120 million tons in gross merchandise value in 2018, up 76 percent year-on-year.

The platform is on its way to creating an ecosystem for commodity businesses by attracting about 150,000 registered users, more than 250 steel mills as partners, more than 3,500 operators, and nearly 2,000 warehouses as of the end of 2018.