Domestic leading travel service provider Ctrip.com International announced on Wednesday plans to buy travel search platform Skyscanner Holdings for approximately 1.4 billion pounds to boost its goal of establishing an international travel ecosystem.
Ctrip has signed a definitive agreement with the majority shareholders of Skyscanner, under which the company will acquire all of their shares. It will make a general offer for the remaining shares.
The purchase mainly consists of cash, the remainder consisting of Ctrip ordinary shares and loan notes.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2016. After the acquisition, Skyscanner's current management team will continue to run the company's operations independently as part of the Ctrip group.
Skyscanner is a global travel search company based in Edinburgh. It serves 60 million monthly active users and is available in more than 30 languages, enabling users to compare prices from hundreds of travel sites when searching for flights, hotels and rental cars. It has established a leadership in Europe and a growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas.
The acquisition is part of Ctrip's efforts at internationalization and building a global travel ecosystem.
On November 16, the company appointed Sun Jie as CEO and a member of the board of directors, effective immediately. Liang Jianzhang, co-founder and former CEO, will serve as executive chairman of the board with a focus on Ctrip's internationalization, innovation, information technology, and investments and strategic alliances.
Overseas markets will be the focus of Ctrip and it will lead domestic service companies to "go global."
An estimated 117 million Chinese people traveled overseas in 2015, up 9 percent year-on-year.
Ctrip now has a broad reach in North America as well as Europe, and it has entered India, which Ctrip said is a market with potential.
But Zhu noted that localization is crucial for Ctrip's international operations. "Travel has obvious regional features. Consumers from different cultural backgrounds can be very different in consumption habits, which entails providing services for specific consumers," he said.
Domestic leading travel service provider Ctrip.com International announced on Wednesday plans to buy travel search platform Skyscanner Holdings for approximately 1.4 billion pounds to boost its goal of establishing an international travel ecosystem.
