SoftBank-backed Indian hotel aggregator OYO has filed for a $1.14 billion initial public offering (IPO) with the local regulator on Friday.
The offering will consist of a fresh issue of shares of up to 70 billion rupees ($942.8 million) and an offer for sale of as much as 14.30 billion rupees, according to a copy of its draft herring prospectus dated September 30, Reuters reported.
According to OYO’s draft herring prospectus, the offer for sale comprises equity shares aggregating up to 13.29 billion rupees by SVF India Holdings, a firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands to hold the investments on behalf of SoftBank Vision Fund LP.
The net proceeds from the fresh funds will mainly be used for prepayment or repayment, in part, of certain borrowings availed by its subsidiaries and funding its organic and inorganic growth initiatives, according to the draft herring prospectus.
OYO is the latest among a clutch of tech-focused companies to tap a booming Indian IPO market, which has seen roughly 30 firms seeking a stock launch so far this year, the newswire reported.
The hospitality unicorn’s IPO plan also comes at a time when travel restrictions are being eased in many countries and the tourism sector is expected to rebound.
In July, it was reported that OYO has raised debt funding worth $660 million from global institutional investors, including Fidelity Investments. The proposed issuance was subscribed 1.7 times as it received commitments of close to $1 billion from institutional investors. The debt deal was upsized and increased by 10 percent to $660 million, the company said in a statement then.
OYO said in the draft herring prospectus that it is a new-age, technology platform empowering the large yet highly fragmented global hospitality ecosystem. It is a full-stack player in high growth and large markets, addresses the pain points of hotels and homes across the world by offering cloud-based technology and a fully integrated tool kit. OYO claimed it has the widest and most integrated selection of technology tools compared to other merchant solution providers for hotels and homes.
It offers tools across offline-to-online onboarding, third-party distribution and demand, online revenue management, operations management, and customer service, all integrated into a single place.
Due to its large footprint in key markets like India and SEA, OYO said it is able to offer far more choices of hotels to customers across the key cities. OYO offers the widest scale of hotel accommodations in the key cities in India and Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest market. Similarly, in Europe, OYO offers the widest range of homes (vacation rentals) to customers across the key cities as of September 3, 2021.