Rakuten, Inc., Japan's largest online retailer plans to sell its
stake in Chinese travel company, Ctrip.com International Ltd.
Rakuten currently owns 20.3 percent of Ctrip, at a value of US$575
million.
Seiji Kasashita, Rakuten's spokesperson, said that Rakuten
intended to use Ctrip to enter the Chinese market, but that it had
now decided to sell its shares.
After Rakuten announced it would dump Ctrip's shares, Ctrip saw
its share price close at US$40.61 in Nasdaq Stock Market on August
8, down 6.17 percent from US$43.28 on August 6. Ctrip's second
quarter fiscal report shows its profit margin dropping
significantly, grossing just US$2 million from its tourism product
sales last quarter.
Fan Min, Ctrip's CEO told China Business News that his
company respected Rakuten's decision and this would not affect
Ctrip's business. He said the fluctuation of the share price was
normal and was not automatically connected to Rakuten. However, he
did not specify whether Ctrip would buy up Rakuten's shares.
For more details, please read the full article in Chinese. (
http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000004/20070810/020000052635.shtml)
(China.org.cn August 10 2007)
