Oyo's employees set to dilute Rs 50 Cr worth ESOPs in secondary buyback

After four months of approving ESOP plan for 2018, Softbank-backed Oyo board has finally offered to buy back shares worth Rs 50 crore from its employees. About 250 Oyo's ESOP holders will be able to offer their shares in the first round that may go up to $150-200 million over the next two to three years.

Importantly, the upcoming secondary buyback will be the first instance where employees of Oyo diluting their holding. However, the firm did not mention the name of the investor buying secondary shares.

According to Oyo Hotels & Homes CHRO Dinesh Ramamurthi the company is rewarding its employees for their hard work, perseverance, and commitment to the company and its mission.

Based on the individual's role, contribution and long-term potential, Oyo has calculated the eligibility for awarding ESOPs.

Exactly a month ago, Oyo’s board had permitted the company to add 2,000 more stock options to its ESOP pool. With the addition of these newly permitted options, the pool will reach to 8,893.

The development comes at a time when Oyo is on culmination in terms of valuation and expansion plan. With a presence in over 500 cities across seven countries - India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, UK, UAE and Indonesia, it recently entered Sri Lanka and has been expanding its footprint in Europian countries such as Spain and Portugal.

As far as secondary share buyback program, the year 2018 will be counted among the most successful period for Indian startups. Starting with the most valuable firms such as Flipkart, Paytm, Ola and Swiggy, the ESOPs liquidity program also benefited employees of Rivigo, Droom and most recently UrbanClap.