EaseMyTrip is planning a Rs 700 crore maiden public share sale that will make it the first online
travel agencyto be listed in the Indian stock market, said two persons in the know.
The company aims to file the initial document, called the draft red herring prospectus, with the capital markets regulator shortly, said two people aware of the developments.
JM Financial and Axis Bank will manage the issue, said one of the people cited above.
The company refused to comment.
Currently, two Indian online travel companies -- Makemytrip and Yatra-- are listed on New York’s Nasdaq. A media report recently cited a senior executive at Cleartrip as saying it will look at an IPO in 2-3 years.
EaseMyTrip has bucked the travel and ticketing industry’s chronic loss-making trend by being consistently profitable, data from the Registrar of Companies compiled by business intelligence company Veratech, showed.
The company posted net profit of Rs 29.3 crore in FY19 from Rs 6.6 crore a year earlier. The revenue grew 33 per cent to Rs 151.1 crore.
Market leader Makemytrip narrowed losses to $167.9 million (Rs 1,180 crore) in FY19 from $220.2 million (Rs 1,548 crore) in FY18.
EaseMyTrip’s cash and cash equivalents increased to Rs 34.08 crore at the end of FY19 from Rs 7.67 crore a year earlier.
EaseMyTrip was started in 2008 by brothers Rikant Pitti, Nishant Pitti and Prashant Pitti as a business-to-business venture, issuing air-tickets for travel-agents, but making them park a fraction of the cash against sales that they would have to deposit if they dealt directly with airlines. In three years, it was dealing with more than 18,000 agents.
It began dealing directly with customers in 2011, working on incentives such as a waive-off of convenience fees charged by other agents, giving them a 6 per cent savings on ticket prices. Earlier this year, it got into an expansive partnership with Jet Privilege--the loyalty programme co-owned by the defunct carrier Jet Airways and its Gulf partner Etihad Airways—to power all its booking and earning/burning miles as it diversified to other airlines after Jet’s shutdown. The company later rebranded itself as InterMiles. EaseMyTrip also powered bookings on PayTM’s air ticket booking tool for a year.
The company has now forayed into booking hotels as well as holiday packages. It has opened offices in London, Dubai and Singapore.
IPO
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
December 10, 2019 at 11:14PM by , Khareem Sudlow
