Ctrip has increased its shareholding in India’s MakeMyTrip to 49 percent after Naspers, a South African Internet giant, swapped out its MakeMyTrip shares for 5.6 percent of Ctrip.
“We are grateful for the unstinting support Naspers has provided us over the last couple of years. We have worked with Ctrip in the past years and are excited to take this partnership to the next level. We will leverage this investment to benefit from the tremendous growth potential in travel and tourism between our two countries,” said Deep Kalra (pictured left), chairman and group CEO, MakeMyTrip.
“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 James Liang, co-founder and executive chairman of Ctrip.
“We are also delighted to welcome Naspers to become our shareholder.
Ctrip will continue to work hard to create greater value for our customers, our partners and all shareholders,” said Jane Sun (pictured right), CEO, Ctrip.
“MakeMyTrip has transformed travel in India and beyond since 2000. The agreement we have announced today is a significant step in the growth ambitions of both MakeMyTrip and Ctrip, and we believe continuing to support them as a shareholder will create additional value for Naspers and our shareholders,” said Bob van Dijk, Naspers CEO.
According to a report in Tech Crunch, “each stake on paper is worth around $1.3 billion. MakeMyTrip has a current market cap of $2.69 billion while Ctrip’s current share price gives it an overall valuation of $23.5 billion. In the industry, only Booking Holdings is valued higher with a current market cap of $84 billion”.
The transaction is expected to close as soon as practicable in the second half of 2019 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including the requisite regulatory approvals.
