HERE Technologies (“HERE”) and Pioneer Corporation (“Pioneer”) today announced a capital alliance that will result in each company becoming a shareholder in the other.
The capital alliance is intended to solidify the strategic collaboration between HERE, Pioneer and Pioneer’s mapping subsidiary Increment P Corporation, as outlined in previous announcement. The aim of their partnership is to support innovations in the areas of in-vehicle infotainment and autonomous driving, as well as other industries where location intelligence can be applied. The partnership also enables HERE to offer map coverage of Japan to its customers.
Through their mutual capital investment, HERE will acquire 11,117,500 newly issued, common stock shares of Pioneer, which equates to approximately 3% of the new total shares outstanding, for a subscription price of EUR 17.3 million. In parallel, Pioneer will, for the same total subscription price, acquire shares of HERE from There Holding B.V., an investment holding company jointly owned by AUDI AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG, resulting in a less than 1% ownership stake in HERE.
The transactions are expected to close on October 5, 2017. Upon completion, Pioneer will join AUDI AG, BMW Group, Daimler AG and Intel as shareholders in HERE.