Macquarie Group and Australian online job-advertising firm Seek will invest about US$110 million in Beijing-based online recruitment firm Zhaopin, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zhaopin’s chief executive, Liu Hao, said that Macquarie’s investment of US$60 million will give the Australian investment bank a stake of around 30% in the Chinese firm. Macquarie declined to comment on the deal. Seek will pay more than US$45 million to boost its holding in Zhaopin to 40% from 25%. Zhaopin will use the funds to hire sales and marketing staff in second-tier cities such as Chongqing, Harbin and Xian. Liu said that Zhaopin has doubled its revenues in the past two years.
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