Online travel platform Ixigo returned to profitability in the June quarter, ahead of its proposed initial public offering (IPO), the company informed the markets regulator.
According to Ixigo’s addendum filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Le Travenues Technology Ltd-owned travel portal posted ₹8.2 crore net profit in April-June, against a loss of ₹3.4 crore in the year ago.
For the year ended March 2022, its loss was at ₹21.2 crore against a profit of ₹7.5 crore in FY21, primarily due to covid-led disruptions and employee stock ownership plan allotted to employees.
In the June quarter, Ixigo’s operating revenue doubled to ₹118.8 crore, as against ₹56.4 crore in year-ago quarter.
Income from ticketing constitutes 94% of its operating revenue. It also booked other income of ₹10 crore primarily on a write-back of a liability.
Its operating revenue witnessed 3.4x growth between FY20 and FY22—from ₹111.6 crore in FY20 to ₹135.5 crore in FY21 and ₹379.5 crore in the year ended March 2022.
Ixigo claimed to emerge as the fastest-growing online travel agent among 30 Indian peers, as well as the second biggest OTA in terms of operating revenues in FY22, behind MakeMyTrip.
Ixigo’s employee costs doubled to ₹30 crore during the quarter from ₹15.2 crore in the June quarter of FY22.
With travel bouncing back, marketing expenses for OTAs increased in FY22 compared to FY21. In the last financial year, its advertising and sales expenses were at ₹57.5 crore, it added.
Founded in 2007, Ixigo helps Indian travellers to plan, book and manage trips across rail, air, buses and hotels. Over 80% users are from Tier-2 and 3 cities.
The Gurugram-based online travel portal had filed its draft prospectus in August last year and Sebi had approved the IPO in December. The company plans to raise Rs 1,600 crore through the public issue launching the IPO by mid-December 2022.
The total IPO consists of a fresh issue worth Rs 750 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) aggregating to Rs 850 crore.
As part of the OFS, existing investors Elevation Capital (erstwhile SAIF Partners) will offload shares worth Rs 550 crore, Micromax Informatics will sell shares for Rs 200 crore and cofounders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar will divest stakes worth Rs 50 crore each.
At present, holds 23.97% stake in the company, Micromax 7.61%, Aloke Bajpai 9.18% and Rajnish Kumar 8.79%.
The company plans to utilise the IPO proceeds for organic and inorganic growth initiatives and general corporate purposes.
So far, Ixigo has raised $95 million including a $53 million round led by Singaporean sovereign wealth investor GIC in July 2021, including an exit from Fosun group.
In the public equity markets, Ixigo will compete with two other similar new-age firms - boAt and MamaEarth, set to make their debut on the stock exchanges. In the recent past, omnichannel beauty and lifestyle retailer Nykaa and automobile classifieds portal CarTrade were the other such tech-enabled firms that were also profitable at the time of their public listing.