SHANGHAI, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Ctrip, Shanghai based online travel agency (OTA) announced recently a deal with global group Naspers to expand its investment in Indian travel market.
According to the two sides' press releases, Naspers will exchange its stake in MakeMyTrip Limited, an Indian OTA giant, for newly issued shares in Ctrip. Concurrent with the share exchange, Ctrip will invest certain ordinary shares and class B shares of MakeMyTrip in a third-party investment entity.
After the transaction, Naspers will own approximately 5.6 percent of Ctrip's outstanding ordinary shares, and Ctrip and the third-party investment entity will own ordinary shares and class B shares of MakeMyTrip, representing approximately 49 percent and four percent of MakeMyTrip's total voting power, respectively。
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.
The Share Exchange Transaction allows Ctrip to enjoy a larger exposure to the India travel market and benefit from the growth of MakeMyTrip. It also allows MakeMyTrip to benefit from Ctrip's significant global scale, said Naspers in its press release.
According to Sun Jie, CEO of Ctrip, Indian travel market has gained more and more attention from global Internet giants for its rising middle-class consumers and its growing penetration of the Internet and mobile Internet.
"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, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip.
Naspers, primary listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, is a global consumer Internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. (Contributed by Chen Aiping, edited by Tong Wei, tongwei@xinhua.org)
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