Yatra Buys Globe Travels To Boost Its Corporate Travel Playbook

Globe Travels Acquisition: Yatra To Add 350 Corporate Clients, INR 783 Cr To Annual GMV

SUMMARY

With this acquisition, Yatra aims to strengthen its position in the corporate travel sector

It will also help the company to ramp up its customer portfolio by adding Globe’s 360 new customers to its existing 850 corporate clients

Moreover, Yatra expects that the acquisition will have a positive impact on its financials

Online travel aggregator (OTA) Yatra has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% stake in corporate travel services provider Globe All India Services Limited (Globe Travels) for INR 128 Cr (around $15.25 Mn).

With this acquisition, Yatra aims to strengthen its position in the corporate travel sector. It will also help the company to ramp up its customer portfolio by adding Globe’s 360 new customers to its existing 850 corporate clients.

Moreover, Yatra expects that the acquisition will have a positive impact on its financials.

Notably, Globe has annual gross bookings of $90 Mn and adjusted EBITDA margins of over 20%.

“Given that the majority of Globe Travel’s business is currently offline, this acquisition presents a strategic opportunity to integrate our Corporate Self Booking Platform into Globe Travel’s customer base, thereby enhancing synergies and driving further value creation,” Yatra said in a regulatory filing.

Besides this, Globe’s corporate clients are also expected to benefit from increased efficiencies and reduced costs through Yatra’s digital platform, the company added.

“Globe Travels’ expertise in corporate travel and MICE and outstanding service record complement Yatra’s existing offerings, allowing us to provide an even more comprehensive and tailored travel experience to our clients across India,” Yatra’s cofounder and CEO Dhruv Shringi said.

Kolkata-based Globe Travels is a corporate travel service-providing company known for its expertise in managing corporate travel as well as Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE).

Additionally, Yatra intends to leverage cross-selling opportunities for hotels and its expense management platform to provide comprehensive travel solutions tailored to customers’ needs.

This development comes at the heart of Yatra eyeing to increase its customer base. As a result, it acquired an additional 45% stake in Adventure and Nature Network (ANN), a prominent player in the adventure tourism sector, bringing Yatra Online’s total holding in the company to 99%.

Before that, Yatra acquired corporate travel service provider Air Travel Bureau (ATB) for an undisclosed amount in 2017.

Founded in 2016 by Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra, Yatra is an online travel aggregator (OTA) and India’s largest corporate travel services provider. To date, it has bagged a total funding of $151.56 Mn till date.

Yatra’s consolidated net profit declined 32.5% to INR 4.04 Cr in Q1 FY25 from INR 5.99 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, it declined about 27% from INR 5.57 Cr.

The jump in top line came even as operating revenue declined both on an annual and sequential basis. Revenue stood at INR 100.80 Cr in Q1 FY25, down 8.5% year-on-year (YoY) and 6.3% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).