HONG KONG, Milestone Capital recently inked a formal investment agreement with Xinhua Travel, an online tourism service provider in China. Under the agreement, Milestone Capital, together with other investors, will initially invest over US$23 million in Xinhua Travel and make a further investment based on Xinhua Travel's future development. The investment will help Xinhua Travel grow fast to fulfill its vision of becoming a leader in new travel life.

Milestone Capital's investment in and strategic cooperation with Xinhua Travel represents high profile recognition of the latter's potential. Xinhua Travel (Xinhua Travel Network Services) is an online tourism service provider integrating online to offline new travel modes, information technology, travel financial innovation with internet media, with an aim of establishing a multi-brand, multi-channel marketing network. As China is the largest tourism market as well as fastest-growing internet market worldwide, Xinhua Travel is firmly committed to "All Resources for Customer Service" and "Best Customer Experience". Since its inception 18 months ago, Xinhua Travel has recorded transactions of RMB3 billion (approx. US$462 million), with average monthly revenue growth of more than 120 percent.

Milestone Capital is a foreign private-equity investment fund management company specializing in direct investment in China, and mainly invests in Chinese companies with steady development and high growth. For years, the company has been insisting on choosing few but good companies to invest, so as to allow these companies to get more support from it. So far, Milestone Capital has invested in 16 companies in China, five of which are listed on overseas capital markets, including NASDAQ-listed Focus Media, VisionChina Media and Dehaier Medical, NYSE-listed Trina Solar as well as Hong Kong-listed GCL.

It is expected that Milestone Capital will bring China's travel-related e-commerce industry a strong thrust for transformation and development, and help outstanding Chinese companies go international.