Reuters Next: Oyo sees recovery in India picking pace, offers no timeline to IPO

BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Oyo Hotels and Homes chief executive said on Wednesday the SoftBank-backed hospitality startup’s business was likely to return to levels seen before the second wave, but did not provide a timeline for its potential public offering.

“In India, if all goes well, in a couple of weeks our numbers will be back to pre-wave two and then growing from there,” Founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal said at a Reuters Next Newsmaker event on Wednesday.

The hotel aggregator, in which SoftBank owns 46% stake and is one of its biggest bets, has endured months of layoffs, cost cuts and losses during the global health crisis.

But with easing travel curbs and increasing vaccinations, the travel demand is slowly recovering in India, with local tourism attractions witnessing a higher traffic.

“Staycations are in vogue and the trend of ‘work from anywhere’ is not a short-term one,” Agarwal said.

He said Oyo, which aggregates bookings for India’s budget hotel and allows guests to book hotels via its mobile app, would consider a potential public offering, but did not provide a timeline.

“We are looking at upcoming IPOs very closely, I’m sure our board will weigh in on our business progress and general listings of technology companies.”

Fuelled by foreign funds and interest from mom-and-pop investors India has seen several listings this year.

Food delivery startup Zomato filed for an IPO in late April and One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of Indian payments firm Paytm, is set to file a draft prospectus as early as July 12.

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