Ctrip doubles down on stake in India’s MakeMyTrip
Chinese online travel giant Ctrip is looking to deepen its footprint in India.
Ctrip has bagged the 42.5% stake owned by South Africa-based Naspers in a share swap deal.
Naspers will get a 5.6% stake in Ctrip.
That makes Ctrip the largest shareholder in India’s largest travel aggregator, cementing its position as a main player in the world’s two most populous travel markets.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2019.
The share swap values MakeMyTrip shares at a 25% premium
Ctrip, which has a market cap of about $23 billion, first invested $180 million in MakeMyTrip back in 2016, and this latest deal will likely see closer cooperation between the two Asian online travel titans.
"Over the past years we have witnessed the great achievements of MakeMyTrip, and we are confident that MakeMyTrip will extend its success in the future," said Ctrip co-founder and executive chairman James Liang.
Deepak Kalra, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip said: "We will leverage this investment to benefit from the tremendous growth potential in travel and tourism between our two countries."
Despite the obvious potential, India welcomed just 247,000 Chinese visitors in 2017, and has struggled to effectively market itself to China.
Last year the India government set itself a target to lure 1% of China’s 145 million outbound market.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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