South Africa-based media conglomerate Naspers seems to be exploring options to exit from Travel Boutique Online. The media group had invested in Travel Boutique Online (TBO) about five years ago.
Naspers said to have been seeking valuation of Rs 300 crore for TBO. According to the Economic Times report, founders – Ankush Nijhawan and Gaurav Batra are also ready to sell their stakes. The duo hold about 48 per cent stake in the company while remaining owned by Naspers.
For the possible buyout, Naspers had approached OTA major, MakeMyTrip and Yatra and other financial investors. Last year, in one of the biggest consolidations in Indian online travel space, MakeMyTrip and goibibo merged with valuation of about $2 billion.
According to the media reports then, Naspers and China-based Ctrip played significant role to drive merger between two competitors.
The Gurugram-based company offers travel services, such as airline, train and hotel reservation and holiday package deals to travel agents and acts as an aggregator of these services in India and the Middle East.
It also lets agents to arrange charter helicopters, car rental, bus bookings and travel insurance services. TBO claims to have its services availed by 25,000 travel agents in India and the Middle East.
In July last year, the company also had bought a strategic stake in Gurugram-based Deyor Adventures. According to research and data platform – Tofler, TBO posted around $31.4 million in revenue for the financial year ended March 2016.
