Yatra Reduces Losses By Nearly 50% For Q2 FY19

Online travel company Yatra has posted financial results for the second quarter of FY19 with a strong control over its losses by 48.6% reaching $2.2 Mn (INR 16.01 Cr).

The financial results for the quarter ended on September 30, 2018, includes 100% of the financial and operating results of Air Travel Bureau, the company it acquired in August 2017.

In a statement, Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder and CEO, Yatra said, “Our multi-channel approach enabled us to deliver another quarter of strong growth with a reduction in our Adjusted EBITDA(2) loss in the quarter. Our consumer business and our business travel platform both continue to deliver strong Adjusted Revenue(1) growth while a combination of improved efficiency on our marketing spends and optimisation of our cost base helped us reduce our Adjusted EBITDA(2) loss.”

He further added, “The integration of the Air Travel Bureau Limited (“ATB”) acquisition continues on track and we expect about half of ATB’s customers to migrate onto the Yatra platform by the end of the year.  We remain confident of our ability to meet our fiscal year growth objectives and deliver a meaningful year over year reduction in our Adjusted EBITDA(2) loss.”

The company’s financial performance highlights for Q2 FY19 include:

• The revenue for the company reached $28.3 Mn (INR 205.57 Cr)
• Adjusted Revenue from Hotels and Packages increased to $ 5.9 Mn (INR 42.82 Cr), representing an increase of 33.8% YOY
• Air Ticketing adjusted revenue increased to $ 18.9 Mn (INR 1,37.32 C),representing an increase of 14.4% YOY
• Total Gross Bookings (Air Ticketing and Hotels and Packages) reached $400 Mn( INR 27100 Cr), representing YOY growth of 23.8%
• Standalone Hotel Room Nights Booked during the quarter were 600K, representing an increase of 30.2% YOY.
• Gross Air Passengers booked were 2.7 Mn, representing YOY growth of 22.1%

In the quarter, Yatra launched ‘Flexi Stay’ – a new feature based on a pay-per-use pricing model seems to be a step towards the same. Being in the initial phase, it is currently being offered in two of India’s largest metros – New Delhi and Bengaluru, and two key religious towns – Shirdi and Tirupati.

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.

The company 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.

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.

For Q2 FY19, the major rival of Yatra, MakeMyTrip controlled its losses by 24.5% posting $47 Mn and also increased its Gross Bookings by 26.9% YoY reaching $1.2 Bn.

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