Easy Trip Planner’s Rs 510 crore IPO Opens Amid Travel Slumps

The Delhi-based online travel planner plans an IPO offer worth Rs 510 crores which will open next week. Ahead of it, let’s take a look at the key aspects of the offer to decide whether it is worth investing in EaseYyTrip IPO.

It’s going to be the tenth IPO of 2021. The promoters are looking to exploit the surge of liquidity in the primary market after the stellar performance of IPO shares in recent time.

Easy Trip Planner’s maiden public issue comprises an offer for sale (OFS) shares from promoters Nishant and Rikant Pitti, each looking to offload Rs 255 crores of shares. The issue is hitting the market at a time when the travel sector is making efforts to recover from the COVID-19 setback.

About Easy trip Planner IPO

• Easy Trip Planner is going to become the first Indian online travel agent to float IPO shares
• The company plans to open a Rs 510 crores IPO comprising OFS shares on March 8, 2021
• The IPO bidding window will remain open for two days between March 8-10, 2021
• The issuer has set EaseMyTrip share price in the band of Rs 186-187
• Retail investors must apply for a minimum lot size of 80 shares and increase their bidding size up to 13 lots or 1040 shares, amounting to Rs 194,480
• The issuer has reserved 75 percent of the offer size for QIB investors. Further, no less than 15 is set aside for non-institutional investors or NIIs, and a merely 10 percent is available to retail investors
• The retail quota is less since the issuer doesn’t satisfy the eligibility criteria to offer a higher percentage for the retail investor as the  three years average pre-tax operating profit immediately preceding the IPO is less than Rs 15 crore
• The IPO shares will list in the major exchanges of BSE and NSE on March 19, 2021
• Axis Capital Limited and JM Financial Consultants Private Limited are appointed the book-running lead managers for the offer, whereas KFintech Private Ltd is the registrar

About Easy Trip Planner

The OTA (online travel agent) is the second largest in terms of gross revenue. Founded in 2008, the company offers end-to-end ticketing, hotel booking, holiday packages and value-added services like travel insurance and visa processing to end customers. It works on B2B2C (business to business to customer), B2C, and B2E (business to enterprise) distribution channels to offer its services. Till March 2019, Easy Trip Planners had more than 49,494 travel agents onboarded across major Indian cities. It has offices in major Indian cities, Singapore, the UAE, the UK, and an overseas branch in the Maldives.

The company had catered to its customers through 400 domestic and international airlines and 1,096,400 hotels.

In gross revenue earning, the company stands second. In FY 20, it gained 4.6 percent of total gross booking revenue and 5.5-6.5 in total gross booking revenue for airlines in the online travel segment.

Company Financials

EaseMyTrip reported a net profit of Rs 31 crore between April and December 2020, over a revenue of Rs 81.57 crore. It earned a net profit of Rs 35 crores on revenue of Rs 180 crore during the 2020 fiscal.

Although the pandemic hits the travel sector, the sector is making gradual recoveries. The domestic air passenger traffic reported a month-on-month rise to reach the pre-COVID level in 2021. Amid the changing scenario, EaseMyTrip IPO will attract investor attention.