MakeMyTrip considers India IPO as it integrates RedBus into local entity

MakeMyTrip India IPO: Online travel booking platform MakeMyTrip on Monday, March 16, said that it is considering a potential listing of its India unit to boost the brand in its core market.

The travel aggregator, which is listed on NASDAQ, said it has restructured its key brands in India under a single entity by merging RedBus India into MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited.

"As part of its long-term growth objectives, the company is evaluating a potential listing of MakeMyTrip India in India, which could provide an additional avenue to access capital, including from domestic institutional and retail investors as well as enable it to provide India-listed equity as potential consideration for growth initiatives," MakeMyTrip said in a press release.

However, the company stated that the potential listing is subject to market conditions, regulatory nods, customary corporate considerations and other things.

MakeMyTrip has acquired a majority stake in India-based group tours operator Flamingo Transworld. Furthermore, it has entered into a partnership with visa processing platform Atlys post-strategic minority investment.

"This investment will allow MakeMyTrip travellers to benefit from a streamlined visa application process powered by Atlys, as well as create an opportunity for MakeMyTrip to cross-sell its travel offerings to Atlys's customer base of outbound travellers. We believe that this will help further expand our market share and consolidate our position in the outbound travel market by creating a differentiated, vertically integrated customer experience," MakeMyTrip said.

The company has said that a key area of organic investment for the travel aggregator in recent years has been leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to further improve the customer experience on its platform.

"MakeMyTrip plans to employ artificial intelligence to improve the user interface and user experience for its customers and to enable end-to-end travel and trip-planning flows directly on its platform," it said.