ChinaTravelNews – China’s largest travel group and OTA Ctrip is joining hands with Huiyu Asset Management and Singapore-based F&H Group to form a fund management platform, Xieling Investment. Based in the Shanghai free trade zone, Xieling Investment will serve as the fund management for overseas hotel acquisition funds.

The Eurozone, still undergoing economic recovery, presents high-grade assets at discounted prices as good-value investments and these will be the initial targets of Xieling Investment. As the cornerstone investor, Ctrip will put up 10% of the RMB2.5 billion in the pre-investment funds that Xieling Investment is raising for the first series of investments, and the remainder will come from Chinese private investors and institutions.

Ctrip leads the way in the booming Chinese outbound travel market

Ctrip CEO James Liang at 2015 TravelDaily HMC

As China’s outbound tourism is thriving, having breached the benchmark of 100 million trips in 2014 with an average of almost 300,000 Chinese traveling overseas every day according to official tourism statistics, Ctrip, claiming 41.4% of Chinese OTA’s outbound travel market, saw 50% growth in turnover in 2014, at RMB6.2 billion, and the growth for Q1 this year was also the highest in three years, according to the latest report by industry tracker Analysis.

Xieling Investment fund will include Ctrip in future global strategic investments and both sides will share the resources of the fund’s hotels and Ctrip’s online platforms to achieve a complete O2O service loop and jointly offer a higher quality service experience to Chinese outbound travelers.

Xieling Investment platform to lead global RMB investing

The Xieling Investment platform will pioneer Renminbi investments globally and, in answer to the national “One belt one road” strategic policy, will seek global investment opportunities by bringing together an elite global team to handle fundraising, investment, management and exit strategy.()