The chief executive of India's Oyo Hotels and Homes has said that the SoftBank-backed hospitality startup's business is 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.
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.
Considering An IPO
He said that Oyo, which aggregates bookings for India's budget hotel and allows guests to book hotels via its mobile app, will 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," he said.
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