Hotel-booking startup Oyo Hotels & Homes has filed its draft papers with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday for an ₹8,430 crore ($1.1 billion) initial public offering (IPO). The hospitality unicorn had appointed bankers and lead book managers for its public listing last month, and was expected to file DRHP by October.
- The SoftBank Group Corp. and Airbnb Inc.-backed firm plans to raise 70 billion rupees through the sale of new shares, according to the filing. The rest will be secondary shares or those sold by existing stockholders.
- The startup was last valued at about $9 billion, according to CB Insights, making it India’s third most valuable startup.
- Founder Ritesh Agarwal, his holding company RA Hospital Holdings and SoftBank Vision Fund — the three largest shareholders — are the promoters, according to the prospectus.
- SoftBank held 46% while Agarwal and his holding company had a combined 33% stake in the firm, according to the last filing with India’s ministry of company affairs.
- The company appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup, ICICI Securities, Nomura and Bank of America as lead book managers last month for the public issue, reported mint.
- The company is expected to list on the Indian exchanges by early next year.
Agarwal established Oyo in 2013 after throwing in the towel of school . Now 27, he are going to be worth billions of dollars if Oyo features a successful listing. The high-profile entrepreneur was a part of a rarefied group of SoftBank-backed startup founders coached by Masayoshi Son himself.
In 2019, Agarwal invested $2 billion, mostly borrowed, to triple his stake within the lodgings startup and take his ownership to just about a 3rd . India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Europe account for quite 90% of the hotels listed on Gurgaon-based Oyo’s platform.
The app has been downloaded 100 million times, consistent with the filing, making it one among the most-popular travel apps within the world alongside Airbnb and Booking.com. it’s quite 9 million users in its loyalty program, generating direct demand from customers.