UPDATE: Mirae Assets Downgrades Ctrip.com International to Hold as Competition Intensifies in China

Mirae Assets downgrades Ctrip.com International CTRP from Buy to Hold and reduces its price target from $28 to $21. Mirae Assets notes, "During our recent trip to China, we found that Qunar's decision to place wholesalers' hotel inventory online might pose a serious threat to CTRP's hotel commission. Most of these wholesalers function on a merchant model, buying hotel inventories at 4-5 star hotels at lowest prices for tourist groups. Leakage of wholesale hotel inventory to retail was a thing of the past and was easy to monitor because volume, mostly offline, was small and scattered. A weak economy, however, has prompted travel wholesalers to place a larger inventory online through Qunar and Taobao Travel. The volume is too big for CTRP to monitor, in our view." CTRP closed at $18.66 on Friday.