MakeMyTrip Eyes Domestic IPO After Merging Key Brands

New Delhi: Travel booking aggregator MakeMyTrip on Monday said it is evaluating a potential listing of its Indian business in the country to catalyse growth of the brand in its core market, strengthen its leadership in India and support longer-term growth. The NASDAQ-listed firm said it has completed its internal restructuring to combine its key brands operating in India under a single entity, with the merger of RedBus India into MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited (MakeMyTrip India).

"As part of its long-term growth objectives, the Company is evaluating a potential listing of MakeMyTrip India in India, which could provide an additional avenue to access capital, including from domestic institutional and retail investors as well as enable it to provide India-listed equity as potential consideration for growth initiatives," MakeMyTrip stated. The company believes that an India listing can be a catalyst to further boost the MakeMyTrip brand in its core market, strengthen its leadership in India and support longer-term growth, it added.

Any potential India listing remains subject to, among other things, market conditions, regulatory approvals and customary corporate considerations, MakeMyTrip said. Providing an update on its strategic priorities, the company said it continues to see robust travel demand in India, over the long term enabled by structural demand drivers including a growing middle class, rising propensity to spend on travel, increasing digital adoption and continued under-‘penetration of organized travel services.

MakeMyTrip has also completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Flamingo Transworld, a regional group holiday packages business based in India. In addition, MakeMyTrip has completed a strategic minority investment in and entered into a partnership with Atlys, a visa processing platform. "This investment will allow MakeMyTrip travellers to benefit from a streamlined visa application process powered by Atlys, as well as create an opportunity for MakeMyTrip to cross-sell its travel offerings to Atlys's customer base of outbound travellers. We believe that this will help further expand our market share and consolidate our position in the outbound travel market by creating a differentiated, vertically integrated customer experience," MakeMyTrip said.

Moreover, MakeMyTrip said it plans to employ artificial intelligence to improve the user interface and user experience for its customers and to enable end-to-end travel and trip-planning flows directly on its platform.