Will Caesars be a good target for JD.COM? COM's bargain-hunting tourism business?

The haze of the epidemic still hangs over the tourism industry, but online retailer JD.COM chose to spend 450 million yuan to enter the market at this time.

On April 25th, Caesars Travel (000796. SZ) announced that the proposed non-public offering of shares raised funds 1 1000 billion yuan. Among them, Suqian Han Bang Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Suqian Han Bang"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of JD.COM, subscribed for 73,056,5438+09,480 shares for 450 million yuan, with the largest proportion of subscribed shares reaching 38.79%.

After this subscription, Suqian Han Bang's shareholding in Caesars Tourism reached 7.37%, ranking among the top ten shareholders.

Source: Ruijing Creativity

It is learned from JD.COM that Caesar's tourism industry brings the big travel products and spiritual consumption products in business travel into the JD.COM ecological circle, supplementing the product supply chain under the Jingdong Travel "Business Travel" channel. Caesars Travel will provide users, employees and related partners in JD.COM with high-end business travel, official travel, duty-free commodity procurement, customized catering, domestic and foreign financial payment and other high-quality products and related consulting services.

In view of the reasons for the shareholding, JD.COM Public Relations Department pointed out in an interview with Time Finance on the 25th that JD.COM has been firmly optimistic about the potential of comprehensive recovery of China's tourism industry, and has continued to promote the business layout of the tourism sector. "Jingdong Travel is constantly trying to break through the traditional OTA model, and through the perfect combination with physical objects, logistics and big data, it meets all travel-related needs of users before, during and after travel, making consumers' travel more convenient. "

Caesars Travel, founded in Beijing 65438-0993, mainly engaged in outbound travel. In July, 1997, Caesars Travel landed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange. On April 25th, 1, 654,380+billion yuan was raised. Except Suqian Han Bang, Wen Yuan Fund, Huaxia Life Insurance, Shanghai Licheng and Qingdao Haotian all subscribed for 25.86%, 65,438+0.7.24% and 65,438+0.2.93% of Caesar's non-public offering in cash.

Caesar Tourism pointed out in the announcement that the raised funds will be used to supplement the working capital, meet the capital needs of the company's business development and daily operating expenses, and ensure the safety of the company's cash flow.

"The strategic investors introduced this time intend to give full play to their products, service experience, brand value and resource advantages, and cooperate with the company in resources, investment, brand and marketing. This is conducive to the company's acquisition of important strategic resources and further expansion of the tourism business industry chain, which is conducive to the company's long-term development. " Caesars Travel further pointed out.

Before it was introduced to JD.COM, in February this year, Caesars Tourism also introduced a strategic investor, Jiantou Chinese, through equity transfer. Its main business includes investment, finance, real estate, scientific and technological consulting, cultural media and so on.

Behind a series of foreign investments, the performance of Caesar's tourism industry in recent years is not satisfactory. In 20 19, its revenue was 685 1 100 million yuan, down16.25% year on year; Net profit 1.24 billion yuan, down 32.8 1% year-on-year, and its net profit also dropped 1.22%.

At the same time, from 2065438 to September 2009, HNA Tourism, the controlling shareholder of Caesars Tourism Industry, passively reduced its holdings because the pledged shares involved breach of contract. Caesar Sega and its concerted actions became the largest shareholder of Caesar's tourism industry, and Chen Xiaobing became the actual controller. After Chen Xiaobing came to power, Caesar's tourism industry gradually adjusted its pace and developed tax-free and financial services on the basis of its original business.

How much can JD pay? Does the entry of COM help Caesar's tourism? Han, an analyst at Analysys Tourism Health Industry Center, told that under the epidemic situation, all tourism enterprises are facing a cash flow shortage. For Caesar's tourism industry, whether it is short-term business stability or long-term business layout, this time node can have a large amount of capital inflows, which can alleviate the urgent need to some extent.

"More importantly, the demand for distribution channels for holiday tourism products, one of Caesar's main businesses, is obvious. If we can get JD.COM's support, it will be very beneficial to improve Caesar's distribution efficiency. COM's future platform capabilities and traffic. " Han added.

All along, JD.COM has not done much in tourism.

Although air tickets, hotels, car rental and other services have been launched for a long time, it was not until June 2065438+2004 that JD.COM Tourism Channel was officially launched. In the same year, JD.COM invested US$ 50 million in Tuniu, and in 20 15, it increased its capital by US$ 250 million in cash and US$ 0.08 million in resources and operational support. In this way, Tuniu obtained the five-year commission-free exclusive operation right of JD.COM Tourism and Holiday Channel website and mobile terminal.

However, the development of Tuniu has gone from bad to worse, recording losses for six consecutive years, of which the revenue in 20 19 was 2,286,543.8 million yuan, up 1.83% year-on-year. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was-773 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 272.04%.

According to the latest 20-F document submitted by JD.COM to the US SEC, by the end of 20 19, JD.COM held about 2 1.2% of the shares of Tuniu. Based on the market value of Tuniu of 94.73 million yuan on April 25th, the equity value of JD.COM is only 20.08 million yuan.

An industry analyst who did not want to be named told Time Finance that the cooperation between JD.COM and Tuniu will be weakened in the future after visiting Caesar. He told Time Finance that some services of Caesars Tourism and Tuniu overlap with group tours and outbound tours in a certain area. After the introduction of Caesar, Caesar's tourism resources can provide new support and supplement for JD.COM in a short time.

Regarding the current cooperation between JD.COM and Tuniu and the future cooperation direction, JD.COM asked Time Finance about it. As of press time, no reply has been received.

Besides investing in Tuniu, JD.COM has accelerated the layout of tourism industry since last year.

2065438+February 2009, JD.COM bought 0/00% equity of Beijing Cuigong Hotel/KLOC for 2.7 billion yuan, mainly undertaking accommodation, food sales, office rental, conference service, property management, ticketing agency and other businesses; 2065438+In April 2009, JD.COM established Beijing JD.COM Yunhe Travel Agency Co., Ltd., and its business scope covers tourism consultation, entry and domestic tourism.

Chen, a life service e-commerce analyst at News E-commerce Research Center, told reporters that the external investment and JD.COM's are not satisfactory. COM's business philosophy may make self-management more in line with JD.COM. COM style. "At present, some air tickets and hotel products of JD.COM Tourism Channel have been self-operated and travel agencies have been established. All of the above may be seen as a signal for JD.COM to strengthen self-operated tourism. "

However, at present, the domestic online travel market has been divided by OTA platforms such as Ctrip, Tongcheng, Meituan, Mawei and Zhu Fei. According to the Research Report on Online Outbound Travel Industry in China in 20 19 released by iResearch, the online outbound travel market in China was highly concentrated in 20 18, with a CR5 of 80.2%, and the industry head effect was obvious.

How many opportunities are left in the market for JD.COM?

Han pointed out that there are still many advantages in high-end tourism, and their own users have strong spending power. With the introduction of Caesars Tourism, a tourism group focusing on outbound travel, there will be a large-scale overlap of user portraits, and the large-scale transactions brought by outbound travel will also push up GMV in JD.COM.

In Chen's view, under the influence of the epidemic, tourism has suffered a serious impact. JD。 COM investment is in the stage of gradual recovery of the tourism industry, or it is a good opportunity to cut in, laying a foundation for JD.COM to some extent. COM's self-operated tourism business.