Cleartrip Continues Its Growth In OTA Segment, 17% Jump In Revenues For FY18

Online travel aggregator Cleartrip Private Limited, popularly known as Cleartrip, posted financial results for its fiscal year 2017-18 reporting a jump of 17% in its revenues.

The filings accessed via Tofler, a business intelligence platform for India, showed that Cleartrip’s total revenues for the year were $43.36 Mn (INR 319.23 Cr), against $37.11 Mn (INR 273.21 Cr) in the previous year.

At the same time, the company showed a marginal maintenance in its losses as it posted a fall of 2% in its losses reaching $8.47 Mn (INR 62.35 Cr) in this fiscal, against $8.6 Mn (INR 63.35 Cr) for FY17.

Having struck an uneasy balance between its revenues and losses on a Y-o-Y basis consistently, here’s a look at the financial performance of Cleartrip for FY18:

• The company’s total expenses for the year was $51.84 Mn (INR 381.58 Cr), a jump of 13.3% against $45.72 Mn (INR 336.56 Cr) in FY17
• Operational revenues constituted 97.9% of the company’s total revenues reaching $42.28 Mn (INR 312.69 Cr)
• Employee benefit expenses for the company was $10.26 Mn (INR 75.52 Cr), constituting 19.7% of the total expenses
• The net worth for the company was $506.7K (INR 3.73 Cr)

For the past couple of years, Cleartrip’s India operations have succeeded in reducing its losses from $9.4 Mn (INR 64.6 Cr) in FY 15-16 to $9.2 Mn (INR 63.35 Cr) in FY 16-17; however, it has increased its revenues from $38.5 Mn (INR 265 Cr) to $39.7 Mn (INR 273 Cr) during the same time.

On the performance for the year, Indroneel Dutt, CFO, Cleartrip told Inc42, “A significant portion of our revenues comes in from our International operations which continue to expand rapidly and are profitable. At a consolidated level, Cleartrip has demonstrated growth rates in excess of 26% YoY and consistently improving EBITDA metrics.”  

Dutt emphasised that “Cleartrip has a leadership position in multiple high growth markets and is well positioned to become a profitable emerging markets travel experiences provider.”

Cleartrip was founded in 2006 by Stuart Crighton. The startup offers customers a personalised travel experience and claims to have sold over 10 Mn flight tickets and 1.5 Mn hotel room nights in an annual basis.

In the online travel market, Cleartrip is competing with MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Ixigo. Yatra has been planning to raise $100Mn in the next three years. MakeMyTrip has recorded a revenue of $123.2Mn.

According to Google India-BCG Report, the country’s travel market is expected to reach $48Bn by 2020. Also, according to an IBEF Report, the online travel space will account for 40% to 50% of total transactions with 2020.

With the acquisition of Saudi Arabia’s largest online travel aggregator (OTA) Flyin to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region this year, the results for this acquisition will make FY19 financials interesting for Cleartrip.