Yatra Posts 6.2% Fall In Revenue For Q1 FY19, Controls Losses By 89%

Online travel company Yatra has posted a revenue of $40 Mn (INR 283.97 Cr) for Q1 FY19, a fall of 16% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The company last posted revenues of $48.13 Mn for the quarter ending March 31, 2018.

Further, in this quarter, Yatra posted $4.6 Mn (INR 31.17 Cr) in losses, a 17.4% fall from $5.57 Mn in the last quarter.

The financial results for the quarter ended on June 30, 2018, includes 100% of the financial and operating results of Air Travel Bureau, the company it acquired last year.

In a statement, Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO, Yatra said, “We delivered another quarter of robust growth while also delivering a meaningful reduction in our Adjusted EBITDA loss through a combination of efficiency in our consumer promotions and reduction in our operating costs. The integration of Air Travel Bureau Limited (“ATB”) continues on track and we are beginning to realise the initial cost synergies, the full impact of which will be reflected in subsequent quarters.”

Yatra also noted a huge difference in revenue on the basis of its yearly results, as in the same quarter in the previous year, it posted a revenue of $43.36 Mn (INR 302. 7 Cr) and losses of $44.78 Mn (INR 312.59 Cr), a fall of 6.2% and 89% respectively.

“The macro environment of the Indian aviation industry is facing some headwinds on account of rising oil prices and weakening currency; however, we remain confident that our multi-channel approach will enable us to deliver over 20% growth in Adjusted revenue in the current year as well, with a meaningful improvement in our Adjusted EBITDA,” added Dhruv Shringi.

Here are some of the highlights of Yatra’s three months ended June 30, 2018:

• Total gross bookings (Air Ticketing and Hotels and Packages) reached $407.4 Mn, representing YoY growth of 37.1%
• Adjusted revenue increased to $29.8 Mn, representing an increase of 24.8%
• Adjusted revenue from Hotels and Packages increased to $7.7 Mn, representing an increase of 20.5% YoY
• Standalone Hotel Room Nights booked during the quarter were 600K, representing an increase of 23.5% YoY
• Adjusted revenue from Air Ticketing increased to $18.3 Mn, an increase of 18.0% YoY
• Gross air passengers booked were 2.4 Mn, representing YoY growth of 26.3%
• Adjusted EBITDA Loss was $ 5.9 Mn, representing a YoY decrease of 33.3%

Yatra’s Expanding Portfolio

Gurugram-headquartered Yatra was founded in August 2006 by Sabina Chopra, Manish Amin, and Dhruv Shringi. It provides a full range of travel-related services such as domestic and international air ticketing, hotel booking, homestays, holiday packages, bus ticketing, rail ticketing, activities, attractions and ancillary services.

Yatra claims to have tie-ups with 70K hotels in India and nearly 800K hotels across the globe. It is backed by IDG Ventures, Vertex Venture Management, Norwest Venture Partners, and other investors. The company last raised $15.4 Mn as venture debt from InnoVen Capital in September 2017.

Recently, Yatra had expressed its intention to raise $100 Mn capital in the next three years in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.

This comes after Yatra filed an offer for sale of its shares with the US SEC in January 2017 to raise more than $60 Mn.

The continued losses of the company haven’t stopped it from making a string of acquisitions geared towards growth and expansion. Here are some of its past acquisitions:

• 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).  In October 2016, it also offered Reliance Industries a small equity stake in the company
• In August 2017, it acquired corporate travel service provider Air Travel Bureau (ATB) for an undisclosed amount

Booming Indian Online Travel Market

In the online travel segment, Yatra’s biggest competition are the likes of MakeMyTrip, Ixigo, TravelTriangle, YuMiGo, HolidayIQ, ClearTrip, Expedia, Ebix-acquired Via.com, Hotels.com, and Booking.com.

Recently, MakeMyTrip posted its results for the year ending December 2017, recording an overall revenue of $172.5 Mn, up by 36% Y-o-Y from $123.2 Mn clocked in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

Due to increased expenses following its merger with Ibibo Group, the Gurugram-headquartered online travel aggregator witnessed a jump in losses to $45.3 Mn in Q3 of FY18.

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.

Another IBEF report says that the online travel space will likely account for 40% to 50% of total transactions with 2020.