RA Hospitality, a hospitality firm based in the Cayman Islands, will pump fresh capital in Oyo Hotels & Homes, according to paper.vc that claims to have accessed notification issued by the competition commission of India. Incidentally, RA Hospitality is reportedly owned by Oyo’s founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal.
Agarwal will also use funds sourced from this firm for share buyback proceedings that will result in increase of his stake ownership in Oyo, according to sources. Last week, media reports were rife with rumors that Agarwal is planning to buyback shares from existing investors Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture in order to consolidate his ownership stake in the Gurgaon headquartered company.
The 26 year old founder is holding talks with Japan’s financial behemoth Nomura for arranging debt to facilitate share buyback and for infusing fresh primary capital in Oyo. Reports claim that Nomura may lend nearly $2 Bn to Agarwal.
There is still lot of ambiguity about whether Agarwal is the sole owner or shares ownership in RA Hospitality. If the share buyback deal does fructify then Agarwal will become the second largest investor, after SoftBank, in Oyo. This will help in curtailing SoftBank’s power and bring much needed balance in the boardroom.
Separately, Oyo is likely to use the fresh capital infusion provided by the Cayman Islands firm for expansion purposes. The Gurgaon based company is aggressively expanding in domestic as well as international markets. The company acquired co-working space company Innov8 for $30 Mn barely 24 hours ago and announced $50 Mn investment in Vietnam market almost two weeks ago.
Oyo is also going full throttle to consolidate its position in the highly lucrative Chinese market, which today is its biggest international market. The company has already invested millions and considerable man power to lure the Chinese consumers.
