Ola Cabs turns Ebitda profitable in covid-hit year
Premium- Operating revenue for Ola Cabs alone stood at ₹6896 crore in FY21, a 65% year-on-year decline as the pandemic continued to impact travel throughout the year.
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BENGALURU: Homegrown ride hailing major Ola Cabs reported its first Ebitda profit, at ₹898.2 crore for financial year 2020-2021 (FY21) even as revenue growth slowed for the ride aggregator in a covid-hit year, according to company filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation.
In comparison, the company had reported an Ebitda loss of about ₹6,102 crore in FY20. Profitability was driven by a sharp fall in expenses for the company's mobility business, Ola Cabs, to ₹6,828 crore in FY21 from ₹26,832 crore in the previous year.
Standalone income of ANI Technologies, which only includes the ride hailing business Ola Cabs, stood at ₹7726.8 crore in FY21, a 63% drop from ₹20,730 crore a year ago.
Consolidated income for ANI Technologies, including food tech venture Ola Foods and financial services platform Ola Financial Services, dropped to ₹10,397 crore in FY21 from ₹27,213 crore in FY20.
Operating revenue for Ola Cabs alone stood at ₹6,896 crore in FY21, a 65% year-on-year decline as the pandemic continued to impact travel throughout the year.
In September, Ola chief and co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal said gross merchandise value (GMV) of mobility business Ola Cabs has crossed pre-covid levels.
“Our Ola cabs GMV crossed pre-covid levels last week. Recovery from the second wave is three times faster [...] 10 million people used Ola for the first time ever in FY21 [...] Many are moving to autos, taking our auto business to almost 150% of pre-covid levels," Aggarwal had said in a series of tweets on microblogging website Twitter.
The ride hailing industry, which includes cabs, bike taxis as well as autos, recorded 71 million trips worth $164 million in January this year, marking a 63% recovery in rides from pre-pandemic levels, according to estimates from management consultancy RedSeer Consulting. By March-end, recovery had bounced back to 69% of pre-covid levels.
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With the second wave of the pandemic engulfing the country starting March this year, recovery volumes for the sector were expected to be hit by 30-40%, the management consultancy had estimated in May.
ANI Technologies is onboarding investment bankers in the run up to its initial public offering (IPO), Mint had reported in August. The company is looking to hit the domestic public markets by the first quarter of 2022.
Ola is looking to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion through its initial share sale and is targeting a valuation of almost $18 billion, Mint had reported.
In July, Temasek Holdings and Warburg Pincus invested $500 million in ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Founder Aggarwal had also participated in the round.
Aggarwal currently owns a 7.9% stake in the 11-year-old company, according to researcher Tracxn.
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