(Yicai Global) Jan. 18 -- Tencent Music Entertainment Group will offer CNY2.7 billion (USD420 million) to buy 100 percent of Shenzhen-based Lazy Audio Online Technology, the operator of China’s popular lrts.me audio service platform, with delivery likely in the first half.

lrts.me will still run independently after the transaction’s completion, Tencent Music, which is a New York Stock Exchange-listed provider of online music and entertainment services and a unit of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, announced on Jan. 15, adding it will also allow lrts.me access to Tencent Music’s content-related ecologies and resources.

lrts.me’s audio reading services and its ability to create content will help Tencent Music Entertainment improve its audio library and corresponding content output after the transaction, said Tencent Music, which is also headquartered in Shenzhen.

Hong Kong-listed China Literature and Shanghai-listed Time Publishing and Media -- holding the stake in lrts.me via an investment fund called Shenzhen Times Tianhe Cultural Industry Investment Center -- which are among the audio service platform’s five shareholders prior to such transaction, also declared in recent days that they reached the agreement regarding the equity acquisition with Tencent Music.

China Literature, which is the largest sole shareholder in lrts.me and also the unit with corresponding controlling stake held by Tencent Music’s parent Tencent Holdings, indirectly owns 39.88 percent stake in the audio service platform.

Founded in 2012, lrts.me is an audio service platform that offers its users audio reading, China’s traditional crosstalk and storytelling, as well as other types of entertainment, podcasts and audio programs. The platform owns its originally-made intellectual property in the form of audio works, with its profiting models including premium membership, one-off purchase and ads, public data show.

Tencent Music is a major online music service provider in China, which has started to expand its business scope to other audio content in recent years. The users of its long audio content files had steadily grown as of Sept. 30 with its ranks of monthly active users rising to 11.7 percent from 4.7 percent in the same time last year, according the company’s previously- released earnings report.

China Literature [HKG:0772] was down 1.67 percent to HKD52.95 (USD8.19) in late morning and Time Publishing and Media [SHA:600551] had risen 2.2 percent to CNY6.97 (USD1.08) on the news. Tencent Music [NYSE:TME] closed up 2.35 percent at USD22.21 on Jan. 15.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi