After IPO, EaseMyTrip’s Shares Trade At 13% Premium Over Issue Price

After an encouraging IPO which was subscribed nearly 160 times, online travel company Easy Trip Planners, which runs the portal EaseMyTrip, debuted its shares at a premium on exchanges on Friday. The company’s shares were listed at INR 212.25 on the National Stock Exchange, a 13.5% premium over its issue price of INR 187. On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the shares were listed at INR 206, at a premium of 10.16% over the issue price. At the day’s high, shares rose to INR 233, up 25% from the issue price.

The company’s INR 510 Cr IPO was open between March 8-10. For the over 1.5 Cr shares on offer, the IPO received bids for 240.27 Cr equity shares, the subscription data available on exchanges showed. 

The issue was priced in the band of INR INR 186-187 per share and was entirely an offer for sale (OFS) by the promoters Nishant Pitti and Rikant Pitti, who offloaded shares worth INR 255 Cr each through the public issue. Post offer, they would hold 75% shareholding in the company. At the upper price band, the total issue size stood at INR 510 Cr. The company did not receive any proceeds from the IPO, since its main purpose was to enhance the brand’s visibility and provide liquidity to existing shareholders. 

Founded in 2008 by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti and Prashant Pitti, EaseMyTrip allows its customers to book air, rail and bus tickets and hotel and holiday packages, besides other travel services. In the Indian market, EaseMyTrip competes with Yatra, MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip, among others. 

Among the major online travel agencies (OTAs) in India, Easy Trip Planners is the only profitable one in terms of net profit margin. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 (FY20), Easy Trip’s profit stood at INR 35 Cr. In its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the company wrote that due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year, its business and operations were adversely affected. 

According to the IPO report of Easy Trip Planners Ltd, from the low of July 2020 when its domestic bookings were just 21% of the number of bookings in the same period in 2019, the company has steadily recovered volumes. As of December 2020, the company’s domestic bookings were 76% of the same time in 2019. In the first nine months of the fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21) i.e. from April to December, the company’s revenue stood at INR 49.25 Cr, against expenses of INR 37.93 Cr. 

By the end of FY20, Ease Trip had 9.65 Mn customers, less than its peers MakeMyTrip (46 Mn) and Yatra (11.1 Mn). 

Update Note | June 4, 2022, 8:40 AM

The story has been updated to include the name of the third cofounder of EaseMyTrip.