(Yicai Global) Jan. 22 -- Shares in TuanChe surged yesterday after its chairman made a non-binding offer to take the Chinese auto e-retailer private at a 9 percent premium on the current stock market price.

The company’s shares [NASDAQ:TC] closed up 12.07 percent at USD3.90, still just half its offer price of USD7.80 in November 2018.

Wen Wei, who holds 66 percent equity, is offering USD4.25 per American depository share, the Beijing-based firm said yesterday. The board has not made a decision yet and there is no guarantee that the buyer will make a final offer, that an agreement will be reached or that the transaction will be approved and completed, it added.

TuanChe, which was the first Chinese auto e-retailer to go public, has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The firm’s sales shrank by 28.3 percent in the third quarter last year from the same period in 2019 to 152 sales across 107 cities, according to the company’s third-quarter financial report.

The company lost CNY38.3 million (USD5.6 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30 last year, a widening of nearly 4 percent from the same period in 2019. Revenue was down 26.2 percent to CNY100 million (USD14.7 million).

Editor: Kim Taylor