After unveiling a completely new branding, popular online travel portal Yatra is now focusing its attention on expanding its services. It is looking to rival MakeMyTrip and has reportedly filed for a potential offer for sale of few of its shares with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. Through the sale of shares, the company is expected to raise around $60 million for some of its stakeholders.
This news comes just a couple of months after the company completed its reverse merger and started trading on Nasdaq. According to the company’s filing, the stakeholders could sell about 6.3 million ordinary shares, at a price of $9.59 per share, amounting approximately $60 million.
As per the report from ToI, the company has filed a stock registration statement with the U.S. markets regulator for shares held by multiple investment vehicles linked to or controlled by Nathan Leight, the chairman of Terrapin 3 Acquisition Corporation (TRTL).
Also, this includes MIHI LLC, an affiliate of Macquarie Capital, which had previously committed to buy an additional $20 million of TRTL equity as part of the reverse merger transaction, and Fuh Hwa Oriental Fund.
Commenting on this development, Dhruv Shringi, chief executive for Yatra said,
Their shares need to be registered before they can be saleable…It’s just a registration process, which one has to go through. Once the shares are registered, they will become like any other share and be freely tradable.
While the report suggests that the company is selling shares worth $60 million, the same report has added that Dhruv, CEO of Yatra, has said that this was not an offer for sale by shareholders. A lot of activities are now happening in the online travel sector in India, mainly because the companies are now looking to get a dominating share in the market.
Recently, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) gave green signal to the proposed merger of market leader MakeMyTrip’s Indian travel business with Naspers-owned Ibibo Group. The deal was announced in October last year and is estimated between $1.8-$2 billion.
After the merger, the combined entity will comprise travel brands like MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, redBus, Ryde, and Rightstay, which together processed 34.1 million transactions during 2015-16.
In December last year, Yatra started trading on Nasdaq under symbol YTRA after completing its merger, making it the second online travel venture to make its debut on Nasdaq, almost seven years after MakeMyTrip went public in the US.
