Ctrip’s bid to acquire a 42.5 per cent stake in online aggregator MakeMyTrip has been approved by Competition Commission of India (CCI). The apex body recently took to Twitter, announcing the closure of the deal. “CCI India approves the acquisition of additional outstanding voting securities of MakeMyTrip Limited By Ctrip.com International Limited,” it twitted. At the current stock market valuation, the deal is pegged at USD 2.57 billion.
Ctrip is a Hong-Kong based travel service provider that has a significant presence in the Chinese market. Although, its India operations is negligible at best. Ctrip has acquired an additional stake in MMT in a swap-deal with South African company Naspers which in exchange received a 5.6 per cent stake in Ctrip.
For the uninitiated, Ctrip had earlier acquired a stake in MMT through a USD 180 million investment in convertible bonds in January 2016.
Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MMT had earlier noted that MMT was going to attempt to leverage the investment by Ctrip to tap into the growth potential in travel and tourism between India and China.
