India's Easy Trip loses booking war with MakeMyTrip in key holiday quarter

MakeMyTrip

09/02/2024 11:51

BENGALURU, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Easy Trip Planners
 EASM.NS , one of India's top online travel aggregators, posted
its slowest-ever quarterly revenue growth as bookings dropped
during a seasonally strong holiday quarter, for which rival
MakeMyTrip  MMYT.O  posted record-high bookings.
    Easy Trip's revenue rose 18% to 1.61 billion rupees ($19.4
million) for the third quarter ended Dec. 31. Its revenue has
doubled in nearly every quarter since it went public in early
2021, before growth slowed to 42% and then to 31% in the
previous two quarters.
    India's travel industry is thriving, with demand for air,
road and rail travel as well as for hotels booming fuelled by
rising disposable incomes. But online travel aggregators are
locked in a battle to win customers, with analysts saying that
MakeMyTrip has lower charges and better service.
    The Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip posted its highest-ever
quarterly gross bookings, revenue and profit for the
October-December period on robust demand for leisure travel.
    On the other hand, Easy Trip's gross booking revenue -- the
total value of bookings before accounting for fees and charges
-- declined nearly 11% for the same period. About 90% of its
bookings are for flights.
    Its net profit rose about 10% to 456.6 million rupees in the
quarter, while its net profit margins fell to 27.6% from 29.8%.
    The company said it is looking to boost its presence in the
non-air travel business for which it took a 13% stake in a hotel
company.
    On similar lines, MakeMyTrip said it had taken a majority
stake in an inter-city car rental service called Savaari.
    Easy Trip's shares had hit a 13-month high earlier in the
day but reversed course to end 2.6% lower after the results.

($1 = 83.0048 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by
Savio D'Souza and Janane Venkatraman
)
 ((Navamya.GaneshAcharya@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8805175330 ;))