Full-fledged online travel agent (OTA) and largest train travel booking OTA Ixigo has maintained its growth momentum and also turned profitable during the first quarter of FY23.
The IPO-bound firm posted operating revenue of Rs 118.8 crore in its first quarter (April- June 2022), according to Ixigo’s addendum filed with the SEBI. Revenue from ticketing is a major source of income for Ixigo constituting 94% of the total operating revenue. It also booked other income of Rs 10 crore in the first mostly from liability written back, representing excess liability ascertained on the completion of contractual obligations and reconciliations.
The share of ConfirmTkt, the FY21 acquisition that made it no. 1 in train ticket bookings among OTAs, is not available at this stage. The firm also acquired bus ticketing platform AbhiBus in FY22.
On the expense front, employee benefit expenses emerged as the largest cost center for the company, forming 25% of the overall cost. This cost stood at Rs 30.25 crore in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year (FY23).
Advertising costs for the firm came in at Rs 23.54 crore during the three months period (April to June). Cancellations and customer refunds at Rs 23.35 crore came in a close third as the firm continued with its free cancellation offers in key segments.
The Gurgaon-based company further spent Rs 18.4 crore and Rs 9.1 crore against partner support costs and payment gateway charges which pushed the total expenditure to Rs 119.2 crore in the aforementioned period.
With growth in scale, Ixigo has booked a profit of Rs 8.73 crore in Q1 FY23. On a unit level, Ixigo spent Rs 1.00 to earn a single unit of operating revenue.
The 15-year-old company is set to go public sometime early next year and filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to raise Rs 1,600 crore in August last year. As of now, Ixigo has raised Rs 433 crore including a $53 million round led by Singapore-based GIC in July 2021.
After a pandemic-hit fiscal year (FY21), the company recorded a 2.8X surge in its scale and its revenue from operations touched Rs 370 crore in the last fiscal year (FY22) even as losses widened to Rs 21 crore in FY22.
Its entry into net positive numbers means that Ixigo will be one of the handful of profitable companies to IPO in the next few quarters. The list includes two direct to consumer (D2C) brands including boAt and MamaEarth. In the recent past, omnichannel beauty and lifestyle retailer Nykaa and automobile classifieds portal CarTrade were the other new age firms that were also profitable when they made their public debut.
