DADA Group (DADA.US) experiences a significant price surge following JD's premium buyout offer.

DADA Inc. (DADA.US) has announced that it received a non-binding acquisition proposal from JD.com, a leading e-commerce company in China. JD.com proposed to purchase the ADSs of DADA Inc. that it does not already own at a price of US$2.0 per ADS (or US$0.5 per share of common stock). This acquisition offer represents a 42% premium to the closing price of DADA Inc.'s ADSs on Friday. The news boosted DADA Inc.'s shares by more than 25% before the market opened on Monday.

It is reported that in September last year, JD Group acquired a total of 87,481,280 shares of common stock and 1,875,000 American Depositary Shares from Global Pinnacle Corporation, a wholly-owned company of Walmart Group. After the transaction, JD Group acquired all of Walmart's shares in DADA Inc. and actually held approximately 63.2% of the issued common stock of DADA Inc.

DADA Inc. said that its board of directors has formed a special committee consisting of three independent and conflict-free directors to evaluate JD's proposal, and added that the group plans to hire independent financial advisors and independent legal counsel to assist in the review.