Qtone Education Group announced on December 9 that the Zhongshan Transportation Development Group (ZSTDG) directly under the Zhongshan State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Committee (Zhongshan SASAC) plans to accept a total of 58.258 million shares of its unlimited tradable shares. The figure accounts for 9.1860% of Qtone's total share capital. The transaction transfer price was determined to be 5.35 yuan per share, and the total share transfer price was 311 million yuan. At present, the two sides have signed the "Framework Agreement on Share Transfer".

This is Zhongshan SASAC's second equity participation in Qtone Education. On November 8 of last year, Zhongshan SASAC completed the transfer of 5.18% of Qtone's shares through its direct unit, Zhongshan Education & Technology Co Ltd.

According to reports, once the transaction is completed, Zhongshan SASAC will hold 14.366% of Qtone and become one of its important shareholders.

According to the ZSTDG, this agreement and acceptance of the shares may help Qtone solve its problem of capital liquidity, and provide protection to the stable development of local listed companies.

Presently, Zhongshan is making every effort to build urban modern service industry platforms for the Greater Bay Area. Upon completion of the transaction, Zhongshan SASAC and Qtone Education will cooperate in such fields as culture, tourism, science and technology, education, and so on.

The two sides will make use of policies and capital advantages to vitalize educational infrastructure of Zhongshan SASAC, 5G facilities and big data resources. Both entities will also plan and construct a Smart Education Demonstration Zone, and with new information technology they will provide personalized support and accurate services for students, teachers and parents.

Qtone Education is a local private company founded in 2005. It has become a leading company involved in Internet education and science & technology services here in China. Since its listing in 2014, Qtone Education has been actively engaging in the educational application technology industry. Its business scale has been increasing significantly from about 200 million in 2014 to nearly 1 billion to date.