Ixigo IPO Garners Significant Demand Across Investor Categories — India Report

13.06.2024 - 07:13 / skift.com / Bulbul Dhawan

The IPO for online travel agency Ixigo saw demand for the shares it offered dramatically exceed the number of shares offered this week.

Investors applied for about 98 times the number of shares in Ixigo’s initial public offering, according to the Indian stock exchange BSE on Wednesday. Demand was strong across all types of investors, including institutional ones and ordinary individuals.

On Friday, the company raised INR 3.33 billion ($40 million) from anchor investors, who are institutional investors invited to subscribe to shares ahead of the IPO opening to the general public.

With the share subscription now over, the allotment of shares is expected to be finalised by Wednesday. The IPO listing is tentatively scheduled for June 18.

The IPO’s full capital infusion into the company will be $89 million, including anchor investors, retail investors, and others.

IPO Timing: It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for Ixigo, which initially filed for an IPO in 2021 and received the green light from regulators the same year. 

“Most tech-listed names were trading below their IPO price in 2022,” Ixigo chairman, managing director and group CEO Aloke Bajpai told Skift in an exclusive first interview. “It was not the ideal environment for us to launch an IPO.”

Fast forward to mid-February this year, and Ixigo decided to take another crack at the IPO, buoyed by two consecutive years of profitability. This time around, the company set its sights on raising a more modest $89 million, a far cry from the $192 million it had originally planned to raise.  

Rajnish Kumar, director and group co-CEO of Ixigo told Skift that the company’s financial performance has been an important driver of its renewed plans for an IPO.

“The company reported consistent profitability, with fiscal 2023 seeing nine months of profits and fiscal 2024 showing even stronger financial health,” Kumar said. “This allowed us to reduce the primary portion of fundraising. We didn’t need that much money.”

Plans for IPO Proceeds: According to the company’s prospect, as accessed by Skift, Ixigo will allocate INR 450 million($5.4 million) towards its working capital requirements. The company will invest INR 258 million ($3.1 million) in cloud infrastructure and technology, while it will also use proceeds to drive inorganic growth through acquisitions and strategic initiatives.

The Moscow City Tourism Committee is looking to boost business travel from India. For this, it has launched a new training program as a part of Moscow MICE Ambassadors online certification project. With this, it hopes to pitch the Russian capital as a preferred host destination for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) events.

The online program targets