And in more company news, Webjet (WEB) shares rose strongly yesterday in the wake of confirmation of a solid rise in first half profit at Tuesday’s AGM and a deal with a Chinese travel group.
The company says it expects its 2017 first-half net profit to be up more than 75% on last year and that it will achieve is guidance for a $78 million full-year profit.
CEO John Guscic told the group’s annual general meeting on Tuesday that bookings continued to grow well. The stock is up 92% this year.
Mr Guscic said Webjet’s bookings growth continued to outperform the market "by more than four times (with) strong growth coming through both domestic and international bookings".
But what caught the eye of investors was the partnership revealed yesterday between its recently launched Asian buinsess-to-business booking venture FIT Ruums and Dida Travel Technology, China’s largest travel aggregator.
Dida supplies major Chinese online travel agents and more than 8,000 retail agents, giving Webjet immediate access to the world’s largest outbound travel market, increasing its global inventory by at least 10 per cent to 143,000 properties," Webjet said yesterday.
"FIT Ruums has an ambitious regional expansion strategy that will see us move into multiple Asian markets," said Daryl Lee, director of Webjet’s hotel booking off-shoot WebBeds. “To achieve this, it’s vital for us to have a strong partner in mainland China and we are delighted to be working with Dida,” he added.
Shares in the online travel agency have surged 9.7% yesterday to end at to $10.48.
It has now joined the likes of the dairy groups (A2 Milk) and big miners in being tied firmly into the Chinese economy and consumer spending.
