OYO has $1 billion to fund operations until IPO: CEO Ritesh Agarwal

Hospitality firm OYO Hotels and Homes is recovering from the coronavirus crisis and has around $1 billion to fund operations until initial public offering (IPO), founder and group CEO Ritesh Agarwal reportedly told employees.

"We continue to hold close to a billion dollars of cash, including all our group companies," Agarwal said during a fireside chat with OYO board member Troy Alstead.

The company, which saw its revenue fall sharply after the COVID-19 outbreak, is focussing on getting revenue per available room to 60-80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels across all markets, Bloomberg quoted Agarwal as saying.

He further stated that the company's business in India, China, Japan and Southeast Asia are making progress in reaching that range. "We are still not at the best place, a lot more work to be done," the 27-year-old entrepreneur said.

Speaking at FICCI Global Young Leaders Summit, Agarwal, recently, said that the company plans to focus on its five core markets -- India, Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, China and the US -- and not expand to new markets in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently the focus is to make sure that the company consolidates gains and goes deeper in geographies where the group has market leadership or challenger status, he added.

He said the company's gross margins are now back to 85 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels.  

"Crisis brings clarity. For us, the clarity that this (COVID-19 pandemic) has brought is that we have clear visibility... we operate in around 80 countries... our core three regions where we are market leaders or market leading in are India, Southeast Asia and Northern Europe, and two markets where we are becoming clear challengers are China and the US. These are the five focussed markets we are going after," he added.

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