Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio) of Viking Global Investors increased his stake in Qunar Cayman Islands (QUNR, Financial) on July 7, purchasing 9,146,107 shares for $36.87 per share, according to the 13G filing.
Halvorsen initiated the position in Q4 2014, and now holds 10,156,644 shares of the company. Domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Qunar is a popular travel booking service in China, and is controlled by Baidu (BIDU), who purchased a majority stake in 2011. Over the past year, the stock rose 51% to close at $43.74 on July 23.
Qunar went public in November 2013, raising $167 million after selling shares at $15, higher than the expected range.
Net loss for the trailing 12 months was $381.5 million, while the first quarter of 2015 saw net loss of $112.4 million. One positive from Baidu’s controlling stake is Qunar has the capacity to reach the world’s largest market.
“If we have a new product, we can go through the Baidu search engine and easily get through to the customers,” said CEO and co-founder Cc Zhuang.
The company has been growing rapidly, according to the first quarter earnings release. Total revenue doubled year over year while flight ticket volume and hotel room-night volume increased by 54% and 81.7% year-over-year, respectively.
For the trailing 12 months, EBITDA per share was $-2.84, compared to $-2.47 for FY 2014.
Qunar’s current ratio for the trailing 12 months is 0.6, indicating the company is unable to cover its short-term obligations. However, so far Qunar has not taken on any long-term debt.
Norwegian-born Halvorsen is a former Tiger Cub, having worked at Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio)’s Tiger Management hedge fund, and founded Viking Global in 1999. According to Forbes, the firm manages about $30 billion in assets, and its flagship fund returned 13.4% in 2014. As of the first quarter, the majority of Halvorsen’s assets are in healthcare stocks at 26.1%, followed by 12.8% in technology and 12.2% in financial services.
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