Chinese online travel agent Tongcheng-eLong files for Hong Kong IPO; sources say it plans to raise between $1B and $1.5B
South China Morning Post :
Context & Ripple Effects
Tongcheng-eLong's filing lands in the middle of a crowded window for Chinese tech listings in Hong Kong: days earlier, Meituan Dianping filed to raise roughly $6B at a $60B valuation, and Alibaba would follow with a much larger Hong Kong offering a year later. For Tencent-backed Tongcheng-eLong, an online ticketing and travel booking site, the listing is also a competitive move against Ctrip, the incumbent Chinese online travel leader.
The target of $1B–$1.5B set up one of the cycle's sharpest repricings: when the deal priced five months later, Tongcheng-eLong raised just $180M after pricing near the bottom of its marketed range.
First-order effects
- Tongcheng-eLong gains a listed currency and fresh capital while remaining under Tencent's backing, but the eventual $180M raise versus the $1B–$1.5B target means far less war chest than management pitched.
Second-order effects
- A weakly received debut from a Tencent-backed travel player pressures how rivals price their own Hong Kong deals — Ctrip's successor Trip.com still proceeded with a ~$1.09B Hong Kong secondary listing in 2021, betting on the venue despite the 2018 wobble.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Hong Kong becomes the default second venue for China's internet platforms — Alibaba, Ant Group, and fintech names like Linklogis all filed there after this cohort — while investors demand steeper discounts from smaller, unprofitable bookers like Tongcheng-eLong.
The trend: Chinese consumer-internet companies are using Hong Kong as their primary fundraising venue, with 2018's oversubscribed hopes giving way to bottom-of-range pricing for the smaller names.