“Tiger Cub” investor Chase Coleman (Trades, Portfolio) upped his stake in eHi Car Services (EHIC, Financial), a China-based car rental service, on Jan. 16, he reported Tuesday.
Coleman’s hedge fund Tiger Global Management achieved stardom primarily through bets on the tech and software sectors, including early investments in growth companies like Facebook and Spotify. He is also a former protégée of Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio), whose Tiger Management Group helped pioneer the hedge fund industry.
According to a filing that indicates an active investment, Coleman increased his stake in eHi Car Services 30.9% by purchasing 2,485,933 shares. He had 10,528,160 shares of the company, or 18.4% control, after the transaction.
Though a sizable stake, the holding of the $823 million market cap company represents only 0.83% of his long portfolio, where positioning in giants The Priceline Group (PCLN, Financial), JD.com (JD, Financial) and Amazon.com (AMZN, Financial) take precedence at more than a third of its space.
Based in Shanghai, eHi Car Services has rapidly grown its business in self-driving car rentals and chauffeured car services to 200 cities in China since its founding in 2006. In April, it also launched a ride-sharing service in 10 cities in China, with 60,000 customers signing up by the end of the second quarter.
The growth culminated in a 27.6% year-over-year increase in net revenue growth for the quarter ended June 30, split between a 28.7% rise in car rentals and 23.9% gain in car services revenue. eHi Car Services ended the quarter with $21.9 million in cash on its balance sheet and $358.9 million in long-term debt.
“Looking ahead, we will continue our efforts to drive industry innovation by leveraging our best-in-class platforms, advanced technology capabilities and leading network scale, while maintaining our current pricing strategy and leadership in fleet management to capture the significant demand and growth opportunity in the car rental market,” eHi chairman and CEO Ray Zhang said in a second-quarter earnings statement.
See Chase Coleman (Trades, Portfolio)’s portfolio here.
