EaseMyTrip aims to raise ₹1,000 cr by April, eyes acquisitions in non-air space

livemint.com:

₹1,000 crore within the next 3-4 months in order to largely focus on inorganic growth of the company in businesses unrelated to aviation sector, co-founder Prashant Pitti told Mint. “This would be the first time the company would be taking any external capital. Till today, the company is bootstrapped.

We are in the process of empanelling bankers to start the fund-raising. We already have a couple of investors who have shown interest. We expect this to happen over the next 3-4 months," Pitti said.

Earlier this month, the company board gave an in-principle approval for raising funds of up to ₹1,000 crore through a combination of preferential issue of equity shares along with warrants. Last year, EaseMyTrip acquired a majority stake in three Indian travel companies including Guideline Travels Holidays, TripShope Travel Technologies and Dook Travels as part of its growth strategy. It has also secured a non-controlling 13% stake in Eco Hotels and Resorts Ltd.

“Among the interested investors, one is domestic, and the other is foreign. In terms of usage of funds, at least more than 50% of the funds will be for acquisition of non-air related companies as we are already very strong in air business. We will use the rest of the funds for marketing activities for the company," he said.

In the non-air category, EaseMyTrip said that it is eyeing opportunities in business-to-business, business-to-consumer, business-to-business-consumer categories, hotels, holiday segment, bus and cab segments as well. However, it is not looking at acquisition opportunities related to train transportation category. "Besides train segment, there are a bunch of people we are speaking to right now and this is why we are doing the fund raise," he added.