Blog

Le Travenues Technology Limited is an online travel agency (OTA) based out of Gurugram that enables travelers to book train, flight, and bus tickets as well as hotels via its OTA platforms under the brand name “ixigo”.ixigo IPO is set to raise Rs 740.10 crores. The issue is a combination of fresh issue of 1.29 crore shares aggregating to Rs 120.00 crores and offer for sale of 6.67 crore shares aggregating to Rs 620.10 crores.

About Le Travenues Technology Ltd:

• Launched in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, Le Travenues Technology is the India’s leading online travel aggregator.
• Le Travenues Technology Limited (“Ixigo”) Ixigo is a technology company focused on empowering Indian travellers to plan, book and manage their trips across rail, air, buses and hotels.
• Ixigo is the leading Online Travel Agency (“OTA”) with their focus on localized content and app features that aim at solving problems of Tier II/ Tier III travellers. They assists travellers in making smarter travel decisions by leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science led innovations on their OTA platforms, comprising their websites and mobile applications.
• Their OTA platforms allow travellers to book train tickets, flight tickets, bus tickets and hotels, while providing travel utility tools and services developed using in-house proprietary algorithms and crowd-sourced information. In 2022, ixigo trains app was the 8th most downloaded travel and navigation app globally.
• Ixigo is the largest Indian train ticket distributor in the OTA rail market and they had the largest market share of around 51%, in terms of rail bookings, among OTAs, as of March 31, 2023.
• Their bus app, AbhiBus, was the 2nd largest bus-ticketing OTA in India, with a 11.5% market share in online bus ticket bookings in Fiscal 2023 which increased further to 12.5% in the 1st half of Fiscal 2024.

Financials: Le Travenues Technology Ltd

ixigo IPO: Anchors

ixigo IPO has raised ₹333 crore from 23 funds at Rs 93 a piece, aggregating to Rs 333 crore. The anchor investors include Government of Singapore, Morgan Stanley, WhiteOak Capital, Bay Capital India Find, Tata Investment Corporation, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company, SBI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund, Out of the total allocation to the Anchor Investors, 12,087,583 Equity Shares (i.e. 33.75% of the total allocation to Anchor Investors) were allocated to 4 domestic mutual funds, which applied through a total of 7 schemes.

ixigo IPO: Salient Points

• AS part of OFS, SAIF Partners India IV Ltd, Peak XV Partners Investments V (formerly known as SCI Investments V), Micromax Informatics Ltd, Placid Holdings, Catalyst Trusteeship Ltd, Madison India Capital HC, Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar will be selling shares.
• From the net proceeds Rs 45 crore will be used to fund the company’s working capital requirements, Rs 26 crore will be go for investments in technology as well as data science, including on cloud and server hosting, technology artificial intelligence and customer engagement. Additionally, funds will be used to support inorganic growth through acquisitions, and remaining for general corporate purposes.
• The company has multi-app, multi-brand approach in view of Given the fragmented requirements of travellers. The company has invested in multiple apps to provide a more unique and customized experience.
• Le Travenues Technology Ltd focus on travel utility and customer experience for travelers in the ‘next billion user’ market segment and is driven by technology, cost-efficiency and their culture of innovation.
• As per F&S Report, company is the leading OTA for the ‘next billion users’with the highest Monthly Active Userf or mobile apps across all key OTAs as of September 2023.
• They were the secondlargest OTA in India in terms of consolidated revenue from operations in Fiscal 2023.
• The company is also the fastest growing OTA in India, in terms of revenue from operations between 2020 ato 2023.
• Ixigo flights, Ixigo trains, ConfirmTkt and AbhiBus have collectively seen the highest usage and engagement among all key OTA players and standalone transactional train mobile apps in India in terms of Monthly Active Users and sessions.
• The number of transactions booked through Ixigo OTA platforms has increased at a CAGR of 139.43% from 0.86 crore in Fiscal 2021 to 4.91 crore in Fiscal 2023, and to 4.20 crore and 3.65 crore in the nine months ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively.
• Between Fiscal 2021 and Fiscal 2023, Company’s revenues have grown at a CAGR of 92% .
• Ixigo has demonstrated ability to cross-sell and up-sell tickets and Value-Added / ancillary Services along with their booking offerings. This includes services such as ixigo Assured, ixigo Assured Flex, Abhi Assured, seat selection, in-flight meals, visa processing, travel insurance and car rental services.
• ixigo IPO is coming at a PE of 154x ( (FY23) and 41x (FY24 annualized)
• GMP as reported on social media has been Rs. 23 (25%)
• Peers

• Listed peers Easy Trip Planners trades at PE of 48.7 times while Yatra Online is trading at much higher PE and reported loss in last quarter. However their EBIDTA margins are better.
• Following points need attention
  • A sale of Ixigo shares was undertaken in Feb 2024, at Rs. 84.52 per share against current IPO price of Rs. 93.
  • Reported Net profit of Rs. 66 cr includes Rs. 17 cr deferred tax credit and hence actual profit is lower.
  • Issue is entirely OFS and combined founders stake of the two promoters will go down from 17% to 10%.
• I intend to apply in ixigo IPO but I do not expect much gains from the stock . On plus side Ixigo utility-focused OTA platforms (multiple apps) have sizeable user base thereby opportunity to cross sell their service offerings with relatively lower entry and user acquisition costs; They one of the fastest growing online travel agency (OTA) player. On the flip side both its peers have not fared well after listing. The last one, Yatra Online which came in Sept 2023 @ Rs.142 is ruling below its IPO price.
• Please take a decision based on your risk appetite and your own assessment.
• Standard disclaimer: I am not a SEBI registered analyst and above analysis is for educational purpose only. Iam a postgraduate in engineering & Management . I have in the past cleared some exams like NISM-Series-V-A: Mutual Fund Distributors Certification, NISM-Series-X-A: Investment Adviser (Level 1) Certification and NISM-Series-X-B: Investment Adviser (Level 2) Examination. This post is my view on the subject matter and is only academic and exploratory in nature. It is not meant to influence investment decisions of investors. I may have bias/vested interest in covered Stock/Mutual Funds/NCD etc. due to my own investment or leaning. Further my understanding of the areas on which I write may be imperfect or incomplete and data could be wrong due to limited time and resources at my disposal. Do check the data from company’s RHP and exchanges before making any decision. Please do your own due diligence as stock market/MF investments have high degree of inherent risk.