I will never acquire a loss-making business: Bhavish Aggarwal on Ola-Uber merger rumours

India's largest ride-hailing company Ola's founder Bhavish Aggarwal on Monday in a press conference once again denied the Bengaluru-based company’s merger with its American counterpart Uber. “People who know me know that I will never acquire a loss-making business,” he told reporters.

Last month, Aggarwal had taken to the microblogging site Twitter to clarify rumors of a possible merger between Ola and its American counterpart Uber. "Absolute rubbish. We’re very profitable and growing well. If some other companies want to exit their business from India they are welcome to! We will never merge," Aggarwal tweeted while quoting a news report.

"Ola is one of the most profitable ride hailing companies in the world with a strong balance sheet. We are the market leader in India and are much bigger than other player. Hence, merger of any kind is completely out of the equation. We believe that India has a lot more opportunity to unlock when it comes to mobility services. As a strong vertically integrated mobility company we will further consolidate our position by any acquisition in the Indian market, if at all,” an Ola spokesperson had said.

Four years ago, Ola and Uber were in talks of a possible merger. In 2018, Japanese conglomerate Softbank was consolidating its cab-hailing companies across the world. Back then, SoftBank Vision Fund owned about 26 per cent stake in Ola and a similar stake in Uber. Uber’s sale of South-East Asian operations to Grab, two years after selling its Chinese operations to Didi Chuxing, had fueled the talks that SoftBank was willing to merge Ola and Uber in India as well. But Aggarwal didn't let it happen.

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