BackOYO says no IPO plan for now, eyes over 1 lakh rooms by 2018
OYO does not have immediate plans to come out with an IPO, says founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal
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Hyderabad: Online hotel aggregator OYO does not have immediate plans to come out with an IPO, its founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal has hinted.
“For the time-being, we are in an early stage of the company and early stage of the market, so for the time being we are not commenting on any specific public offering plans," he told PTI here when asked if the company has IPO plans. “We also recently raised $250 million in private capital. So, we have a healthy balance-sheet for the time being," said Agarwal.
On whether going public is a possibility in the medium term, he said, “From my perspective, I don’t think so but again it’s something that I cannot give a specific yes or no answer." Founded in 2013, the Gurugram-based firm currently has 70,000 rooms on its platform. “Our target is to grow from 70,000 keys to 1,80,000 keys by December next year," Agarwal said. “We (OYO) are already operating with 80%-plus occupancy in top cities of India; 70% is the national average (for OYO), which means there is enough occupancy and demand from customers," he said.
The Softbank-backed firm is currently focused on the low-cost and mid-market segment in India, which Agarwal, said is a four million rooms opportunity, and bringing more choice for its customers. “In the last three years we have been able to consistently improve and upgrade our quality of services, expand and double our revenues and ensure that we are doing it with very stable margins."
He said the company is aiming to increase the NPS (net promoter score) from the present 50 to 70. NPS is an index ranging from minus 100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products and services to others.
“We are also looking at aggressively ramping up good location hotels, because in the hotel business, if you get the location good, the opportunity is very large," he said.
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