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Oyo To Pump In Rs 1,400 Crore In India, Nepal Operations

India’s largest hospitality chain is looking to strengthen technology and expand operations.

The logo of Oyo Hotels and Homes is displayed outside a hotel in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
The logo of Oyo Hotels and Homes is displayed outside a hotel in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Oyo Hotels and Homes said it will invest $200 million (about Rs 1,400 crore) in its India and Nepal businesses in 2019 as India’s largest hospitality chain looks to strengthen technology and expand operations.

“With a strong balance sheet, today we can go to more places than ever, introduce new categories, invest in our assets, while maintaining our high-quality standards, without raising any further capital,” Ritesh Agarwal, founder of Oyo Hotels and Homes said.

Besides India, which accounts for two-thirds of its revenue, China is a key market for Oyo where last year it had pumped in $600 million out of the $1 billion it raised from SoftBank and others. “We realised there are 35 million unbranded rooms, and on the other side, millions of people are travelling, and we grew aggressively in the last three quarters,” he said. “This quality of momentum is seldom visible in the markets but when it is, you continue to double down, and that’s what we are doing in China as we speak.”

Agarwal said that Oyo Hotels' losses as a percentage of realised value (sales run rate) are reducing on a yearly basis. “It has reduced from 44.5 percent in financial year 2016-17 to 20.3 percent in FY18,” he said, adding that he estimates it to further improve to 10.4 percent in FY19.

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