Chinese company to purchase travel portal Skyscanner – RTP

The two companies have confirmed today the business, which will be done almost all in cash.

To Ctrip, which is owned in part by the search engine in chinese Baidu, allows users to make Internet booking of plane and train tickets and hotels.

In the past year, has generated 350 billion yuan (48 billion euros) in gross revenue, according to information on the official website of the company.

“The Ctrip is clearly the market leader in China and a company that could give a lot to win,” he said in a statement the chief executive of Skyscanner, Gareth Williams.

The acquisition allows the Skyscanner “take one more step in the direction of make the search as simple as possible for travellers from all over the world,” he added.

headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, Skyscanner offers services similar to that of Ctrip and has 60 million users, mostly in Europe.

The business will allow the company to maintain its current management team, details the press release.

The founder and ceo of Ctrip, in Liang Jianzhang said: “the acquisition will strengthen the engines of growth of both companies over the long term” and that the Skyscanner “will complement” the position of the chinese company “a global scale”.

In the report on the results of the third quarter, Ctrip also announced the acquisition of two big tour operators in north american that specialize in serving chinese tourists”, without mentioning the names.

Various private groups chinese have invested in the assets of the tourism sector outside the country, as China strengthens its position as the world’s largest emitter of tourists.

The group Fosun, which on Sunday announced to have invested 174,6 million euros to be the biggest shareholder of the Portuguese bank BCP, and that already had in Portugal, Fidelity, and the Light Health, bought in 2015 the Cirque du Soleil and completed the purchase of the Club Med.

That the consortium also holds a stake in tour operator Thomas Cook, with headquarters in the United Kingdom.

The chinese group HNA, a shareholder of TAP by the consortium’s Atlantic Gateway and of the brazilian company Azul, announced last month the purchase of 25% of the capital of the hotel chain north american Hilton.

By the accounts of the chinese Government, 120 million chinese traveled out of Mainland China in 2015, an increase of 19.5% compared to the previous year.