(Yicai Global) June 5 -- Domestic theme park leader and real estate developer Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town issued a joint announcement with Tongcheng Tourism Group yesterday, stating that the two have struck a cooperative deal, and OCT Group will invest over CNY2 billion in Tongcheng Tourism Group, with OCT Group to become one of its main shareholders, and both parties will bring into play the strategic synergistic effects of their offline resources and online big data.

The parties will launch comprehensive cooperation centering around market positioning, consolidated destination resources and rising consumer spending.

Tongcheng Tourism Group consisted of Tongcheng Network and Tongcheng Holdings until Tongcheng Network and eLong merged in March to form TongCheng-eLong, which will build a one-stop online travel service platform by leveraging its air, train ticket and hotel portals.

Tongcheng Holding owns a travel agency group, culture and tourism group and aviation division. Among these, the travel agency group and the culture and tourism group mainly develop tours and target the comprehensive destination consumption with ticketing as its pedestal.

OCT publicly disclosed partial information about this investment, announcing that the company had entered into an equity transfer agreement on May 10 with Suzhou Wancheng Shengda Tourism Development through a wholly-owned unit and acquired 5.11 percent equity in Suzhou Wancheng for CNY1.20 billion.

OCT did not disclose the specific name of the target company but did indicate that its affiliate is a leading online travel agency that provides one-stop travel booking services in China and holds forth good growth prospects. OCT's acquisition target of CNY1.20 billion corresponds to Tongcheng-eLong's market value, a pundit speculated.

Editor: Ben Armour