Ctrip buys UK firm for 1.4b pounds

The website of Skyscanner. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Ctrip International, China's biggest online travel firm, has agreed to buy UK travel comparison website Skyscanner for 1.4 billion pounds ($1.75 billion), giving it a strong foothold in Europe and a chance to further tap into China's thriving outbound tourism market.

Edinburgh-based Skyscanner, which was set up in 2003 by three IT professionals, lets users compare prices from different websites when searching for flights, hotels and car hire.

Gareth Williams, Skyscanner's co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "Ctrip is the clear market leader in China and a company we can learn a huge amount from."

Liang Jianzhang, cofounder and executive chairman of Ctrip, said the acquisition will strengthen long-term growth drivers for both companies.

"Skyscanner will complement our positioning at a global scale and Ctrip will leverage our experience, technology and booking capabilities to Skyscanner's," Liang said.

Skyscanner employs more than 800 people in 10 offices around the world, and its website serves 60 million active users every month and is available in more than 30 languages, including Chinese, Russian and Japanese.

Skyscanner will continue to manage its operations after it becomes part of the Ctrip group.

The inspiration for setting up the company came from Williams' frustration when trying to find cheap flights to ski resorts.

He said the deal will take the Edinburgh-based company "one step closer to our goal of making travel search as simple as possible for travelers around the world".

Ctrip was founded in 1999 and is now one of China's best-known travel businesses, providing accommodation reservations, ticketing and package tours as well as corporate travel management in the country.

It merged with another major Chinese online agency, Qunar, last year to form the country's biggest internet travel service. The deal gave Chinese search giant Baidu, which controlled Qunar, a 25 percent stake in Ctrip.

A key part of the Skyscanner deal is the acquisition of the company's technology, said Jeffrey Towson, a professor who teaches investment at Peking University.