Online Tour Service Tuniu Files for IPO on NASDAQ to Raise up to $120 Million

Chinese travel service Tuniu has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for IPO under the ticker symbol of “TOUR” to raise up to $120 million funds.

Tuniu offers travel services including organized tours and self-guided tours, and combined air ticket and hotel booking. The company’s business overlaps with that of the other US-listed Chinese online travel services like Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP) and eLong (NASDAQ:LONG), but Tuniu claimed that it distinguished itself from other services with its special focus on leisure travelers.

Before the IPO, the company’s board members and senior executives hold an 86.4% stake in the firm on aggregate, of which 10.9% is controlled by Yu Dunde, founder and CEO of Tuniu.

The company’s revenue reached 1.96 billion yuan in 2013, higher than 1.12 billion yuan in 2012 and 772 million yuan in 2011. Its revenue mainly comes from package tours, which account for more than 90% of the total revenue (1.89 billion yuan in 2013, 1.07 billion yuan in 2012, 751 billion in 2011).

Tuniu booked net loss of 91.9 million yuan, 107.2 million yuan and 79.6 million yuan (US$13.2 million) in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.  Its gross profit rate stood at a relative low level of 6.2% in 2013, although that is up from 3.5% in a year earlier.

Founded in 2006, the company has raised $60 million in Series D from Temasek and existing investor DCM last September. The company’s investors in previous rounds include Gobi Partners and Sequoia.

As China tech stocks performed pretty well in the US stock markets last year, strings of Chinese tech companies flocked to the US stock market since beginning of this year, including online retailer JD.com, Sina Weibo and Kingsoft Subsidiary Cheetah Mobile.

image credit: Tuniu