Yatra Reports 40.8% Revenue Growth In Q3 2017; Despite Surge In Adjusted EBITDA Losses

Gurugram-headquartered online travel portal Yatra has announced its unaudited financial results for the three months ending on December 31, 2017. As per its SEC filings, the company registered a 40.8% year-on-year (YoY) growth in revenue to $52.7 Mn (INR 336.04 Cr) for the last quarter of 2017.

Overall, in the last quarter of 2017, the online travel aggregator raked in profits upwards of $3.6 Mn (INR 23.2 Cr), with adjusted EBITDA loss expanding from $2.9 Mn (INR 18.7 Cr) in the year-ago period to $6 Mn (INR 38.8 Cr).

Additionally, its revenue less service costs increased to $30.7 Mn (INR 195.7 Cr), growing at 45.6% YoY. Revenue less service cost essentially refers to a company’s total revenue minus the cost of manufacturing and/or delivering a product or service.

Commenting on the development, Yatra co-founder and CEO Dhruv Shringi said, “We delivered yet another solid quarter of results with revenue less service cost growth at 45.6% year-over-year.  Our multi-channel approach and the resultant symbiotic relationship between our corporate and consumer direct businesses continues to deliver well for us.”

“We have taken great strides on our technology platform for both our retail and corporate customers.  This is an exciting time for Yatra, as we believe the combination of strong economic growth and consumer demand at the macro level and our own unique approach at the company level will help us maintain a strong growth rate over the longer term,” Shringi added.

According to the earnings report, its revenue less service cost from air ticketing jumped by 46% YoY to $21.4 Mn (INR 137 Cr), while that from hotels and packages surged by 46.8% to $6.8 Mn (INR 43.7 Cr) during the three months ending in December 2017.

Total gross bookings during the said period – including air ticketing, hotels and packages – touched $375 Mn (INR 2390 Cr), representing a YoY growth of around 44.8%. Of this, standalone hotel room nights booked via the Yatra platform stood at 500K, up by 37.8% from the same quarter in 2016.

Similarly, gross flight tickets booked through the portal in the last three months reached 2.3 Mn, growing by 31% YoY.

As per the company’s previous filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Yatra reported a total revenue of over $150.28 Mn (INR 939.3 Cr) in 2016-17, up from the earlier $134.04 Mn (INR 837.8 Cr).

Yatra: 70,000 Hotels In India, 800K Hotels Globally

Founded in August 2006 by Sabina Chopra, Manish Amin, and Dhruv Shringi, Gurugram-based online travel portal Yatra currently claims to have tie-ups with over 70,000 hotels in India and nearly 800,000 hotels across the globe. The company provides information, pricing, availability, and booking facility for domestic and international air travel, domestic and international hotel bookings, holiday packages, buses, trains, in city activities, inter-city and point-to-point cabs, homestays and cruises.

The 11-year-old company is backed by IDG Ventures, Vertex Venture Management, Norwest Venture Partners, and other investors. Most recently, in September 2017, Mumbai-based InnoVen Capital reportedly invested about $15.4 Mn in Yatra. The venture debt fund had previously extended a $4 Mn venture debt facility to Yatra in 2013.

In October last year, the online travel booking company announced a partnership with budget hotel marketplace OYO to expand its total hotel inventory across the country. The partnership with OYO was said to be geared towards helping Yatra deliver a unique proposition by extending the pool of accommodation options for customers.

Despite rising losses, Yatra has made a string of acquisitions geared towards growth and expansion. These include Travelguru, Travel-Logs, WhatsApp-based concierge app Dudegenie and Bengaluru-based auto rickshaw aggregator MGaadi. In July 2016, Yatra signed a reverse merger agreement with NASDAQ-listed firm Terrapin 3 Acquisition Corp (TRTL).

Following the move, Yatra started trading on NASDAQ, a global electronic marketplace for buying and selling securities. In October 2016, it also offered Reliance Industries a small equity stake in the company. As part of the deal, Reliance agreed to pre-install Yatra’s hotel and flight discovery app on all its Lyf 4G phones.

In July 2017, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL) reportedly exited from its investment in the online travel portal. The equity-convertible warrants were sold for about $6 Mn (INR 39 Cr), according to Yatra’s annual report for FY17.

Around the same time, it acquired corporate travel service provider Air Travel Bureau (ATB) for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was aimed at strengthening Yatra’s presence in India’s burgeoning corporate travel sector.

The country’s travel market (both offline and online) is expected to become a $48 Bn industry by 2020, according to a Google India-BCG report. As per an IBEF report, the online travel space will likely account for 40% to 50% of total transactions with 2020. Yatra’s biggest competitors in this space is MakeMyTrip. In May 2017, MakeMyTrip raised $330 Mn Naspers and Ctrip as well as other investors.

MakeMyTrip posted net losses of $62.3 Mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2017. The online travel company had posted a net loss of $39.5 Mn for the corresponding period of the previous financial year. However the company’s revenue stood at $152.9 Mn for Q2 2017-18, up almost 84% from the $83.1 Mn for the same period a year ago.

Other players in this space include ixigo, ClearTrip, Ibibo Group, Bengaluru-based WanderTrails and Ebix-acquired Via.com, to name a few.