Baidu to sell nearly third of Ctrip stake for $1 billion

SHANGHAI: Chinese internet search giant Baidu Inc will sell nearly a third of its stake in online travel firm Ctrip.com International Ltd, aiming to raise about $1 billion as it looks to invest in new revenue streams. Baidu, Ctrip’s biggest shareholder with a 19 per cent stake, is offering 31.3 million American Depositary Shares (ADS), each representing 0.125 ordinary share of Ctrip. Underwriters will have a greenshoe option of 4.7 million ADS, Ctrip said in a statement. Baidu and Ctrip in 2015 agreed to a share swap deal in which Ctrip exchanged some of its newly issued shares for stock that Baidu held in rival travel firm Qunar Cayman Islands. Baidu, whose search engine dominates the market in China, is struggling amid tougher government regulation and as a trade war-hit economy has sapped customers’ wallets, hurting advertising revenue. — Reuters