(Yicai) April 2 -- Shares of E-House China Enterprise Holdings plunged after the Chinese real estate transaction service provider said its chief executive officer resigned and pushed forward a plan to buy a 65 percent stake in the firm’s affiliated real estate big data application and consulting platform.

E-House Enterprise Holdings [HKG: 2048] closed down 12.2 percent at 13 Hong Kong cents (2 US dollars) today, after earlier falling over 20 percent.

Ding Zuyu today resigned from the position of CEO, as he and his consortium of investors intend to acquire a controlling stake in China Real Estate Information Corporation Holdings and CRIC Shanghai Information Technology for CNY520 million (USD71.9 million), the Shanghai-based firm announced today. Ding will remain CRIC’s chairman.

Zhou Xin, founder and executive director of E-House, will replace Ding to serve as the company’s new CEO, E-House added.

CRIC is a real estate big data application and consulting service provider covering 387 Chinese cities and serving over 95 of the top 100 real estate companies in the country, E-House noted. It provides comprehensive solutions for real estate online and offline information services for governments, enterprises, and home buyers.

E-House’s net loss narrowed 68 percent to CNY1.2 billion (USD171 million) last year from the previous year, according to the firm’s latest earnings report released on March 28.

Editor: Futura Costaglione