Tencent Offers to Buy eLong -- Update

By Josh Beckerman 

NEW YORK-- Tencent Holdings Ltd. wants to buy the rest of Chinese travel company eLong Inc., as the Internet conglomerate and its rivals look to benefit from China's growing legions of travelers.

Tencent is offering $18 per American depositary share in a preliminary, nonbinding proposal, eLong said Monday. That is a 24% premium to Friday's closing price.

Tencent already owns stakes in eLong that give it effective control of about 15% of the company, which had a market capitalization of about $521 million before the offer was made.

In after-hours trading Monday, eLong's ADSs rose 10% to $15.65. The company said its board will form a special committee to consider the offer.

A Tencent spokeswoman said the company hopes "to capture the promising potentials in the travel sector." She also said the offer was part of its strategy to link users with online and offline services.

Tencent owns China's popular WeChat mobile messaging service, as well as electronic messaging platform QQ and a videogame business that offers a number of popular titles. The company, based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, is competing with Chinese rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. to capture the growing number of Chinese who use mobile services for everything from buying movie tickets to transferring money with their smartphones.

All three are increasingly investing in travel. Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2030, tourists from China will make up about 40% of outbound Asian travelers, taking 1.7 billion trips annually, up from 500 million trips taken in 2012.

ELong also said it swung to a second-quarter loss of 360 million yuan ($58 million) as revenue declined. Hotel revenue was lower in part due to an "aggressive" coupon program, and transportation revenue fell as major Chinese airlines lowered their base air commission rates.

In May, Expedia Inc. sold its majority stake in eLong for $671 million to a group of buyers including Ctrip.com International Ltd., Keystone Lodging Holdings Ltd., Plateno Group Ltd. and Luxuriant Holdings Ltd. Expedia's involvement with eLong dated back to 2005, when Expedia's then-parent IAC/InterActiveCorp. took a controlling interest in the Chinese company.

Carlos Tejada in Beijing contributed to this article.

Write to Josh Beckerman at [e-mail]

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