In one of the biggest acquisition of a foreign firm done by an Indian unicorn, Oyo is set to acquire Amsterdam-based vacation rental company @Leisure Group from Axel Springer at a little over Euro 369.5 million, or over Rs 2,880 crore.
SoftBank-backed Oyo, which is trying to establish a base in Europe, UK and US, had been in talks with @Leisure for over the past six months. This acquisition would make its move into these regions smoother. @Leisure, through its Belvilla, DanCenter, and Danland brands, offers more than 30,000-fully managed holiday homes across 13 countries in Europe. Its Traum-Ferienwohnungen brand offers a subscription-based home management service with over 85,000 homes across 50 countries. This represents a total inventory of 300,000 rooms.
Ritesh Agarwal, who founded Oyo as a 19-year-old in 2013, said: “We see vacation homes as a unique opportunity with 115,000 units of homes now getting added to our already growing count of beautiful homes and we are excited to continue maintaining our global industry leadership. @Leisure has proven capabilities in helping develop Europe into a vacation rentals hotspot. It is a business decision closely aligned with our overall mission that has incredible potential.”
In March, diversifying from the hotel and long-term lodging business to co-working spaces, Oyo acquired Innov8. Sources said Oyo, which has more than $1.1 billion in its balance sheet, spent between Rs 150 crore and Rs 200 crore for the acquisition.
Oyo aims to open more than 35 new co-working spaces in major metropolitans over the next one year. It has also started two new co-working brands —PowerStation and WorkFlo — that will cater to a variety of start-ups and companies. Oyo also has plans to provide affordable office and workstation spaces to companies. The company has already made an expansion plan for the whole year.
Globally, Oyo is present in 10 countries, over 500 cities and hosts millions of guests in over 18,000 hotels and homes in over 515,000 rooms. The company’s sales run-rate in December ended at $1.8 billion, growing roughly at 4.3X year-on-year.
The company aims to be the world’s sixth-biggest hotel brand by room numbers. Agarwal has earlier said the company aims to become the largest hotel brand by rooms by 2023.
