PremiumBENGALURU : Online travel portal ixigo is looking to raise ₹750 crore through a primary issue of shares, as part of its ₹1,500-1,800 crore initial public offering (IPO) expected later this fiscal year, two people aware of the discussions said, requesting anonymity. The company has appointed Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Securities, Axis Capital Ltd and Nomura as its investment bankers, and will file its draft red herring prospectus in July, said one of the two people.
The travel portal, which has so far raised close to $22 million as part of its primary fundraise, will look to give a partial exit to investors through its public offering. ixigo counts Sequoia Capital India, Fosun RZ, Elevation Capital and Micromax Informatics as its investors. The company is also in talks to raise a pre-IPO round in the coming months, they added.
“ixigo is planning to file its draft red herring prospectus in July this year, listing its growth numbers for the fiscal year ended March 2021. A few institutional investors and fund houses are in talks with the company for a possible pre-IPO participation currently. The company is still deliberating on the final target corpus which it plans to raise as part of its pre-IPO funding," added the first person.
In the run-up to its IPO, ixigo also appointed Ravi Shanker Gupta as its new chief financial officer. In the past, Gupta helped several brands, to go public, including Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, which operates food chain Dominos Pizza and, until recently, Devyani International Ltd (DIL), the franchisee of American fast-food major Yum Brands.
ixigo also appointed Suresh Kumar Bhutani as the company secretary, said the second person. Bhutani had previously handled legal functions for brands such as IndiGo Airlines and Ciena India. ixigo did not respond to Mint’s queries till press time.
“It is an uncertain time for travel firms to go public. Last year was not good for the travel industry, and uncertainty ensues with newer variants of covid now emerging. But travel firms might be looking at this as an opportunity to release their public offerings, because investors might give them a benefit of doubt due to the pandemic. However, travel won’t be the same even post-pandemic with chances of new business models and technology pivots emerging for the industry," said Santosh N., managing partner, D&P Advisory Services LLP, a management consultancy.
Launched in 2007, Gurugram-based ixigo is an online travel platform offering train, flight and bus ticket bookings. It also helps consumers in deal discovery, offers personalized recommendations, airfare predictions and train delay alerts, among other services.
In February, ixigo had acquired Bengaluru-based online train discovery and booking platform, Confirmtkt, for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, the company said it witnesses over 37 million unique visitors every month.
The platform claims to process over ₹5,000 crore in annualized gross booking value, and has over 230 million app-downloads since inception.
For 2019-20, it reported ₹153 crore in net revenue, and ₹5.4 crore in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) loss, ixigo co-founder Aloke Bajpai had said in February.
In March, the initial public offering of travel portal Easy Trip Planners, which operates EaseMyTrip.com, was subscribed 160 times. The qualified institutional buyer (QIB) portion was subscribed 78 times, while the retail portion was subscribed 70.78 times, Mint had reported.
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