China’s largest online travel firm Ctrip has acquired price-comparison website Skyscanner Holdings for £1.4bn ($1.75mbn), marking the biggest Scottish corporate deal of the year to date. Serving 60 million active users every month, Skyscanner allows users to compare prices from different travel sites when searching for the cheapest available airfares, accommodation options and rental cars. The sale price to Ctrip reflects a considerable premium on the £1.2bn valuation it was given during a funding round in January.
Building global strength
Skyscanner chief executive Gareth Williams said of the deal: ‘Ctrip is the clear market leader in China and a company we can learn a huge amount from.’ The deal follows ongoing speculation that Skyscanner was gearing up for either a sale or an initial public offering, and comes less than 12 months after Skyscanner secured £128m in new capital from a group of investors that included Malaysia’s sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional, Yahoo Japan and fund manager Artemis. Shanghai-headquartered Ctrip became China’s largest on line travel company last year after merging with competitor Qunar. It is expected that Skyscanner’s current management team will continue to independently lead operations at the Scotland-based company once the sale is finalised at the end of this year.
Law firms win mandates
Leading advice to Skyscanner on the acquisition was a team from Pinsent Masons led by Edinburgh-based corporate finance partner Alan Diamond and Glasgow-based corporate finance head Rosalie Chadwick. Skyscanner’s own in-house legal team is led by chief legal officer Carolyn Jameson, and was awarded in-house team of the year at the recent Legal Business In-house Legal Awards. A team from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom led by corporate partner John Adebiyi was instructed by Ctrip to advise on corporate matters, while Travers Smith provided advice to the Chinese company on employee incentives.
Sources: Legal Business; The Guardian; BBC
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