Oyo founder in billion dollar share buyback talks
Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal is reportedly planning to buy back shares from two major backers in a bid to firm up control of the Indian hospitality unicorn.
The 26-year-old founder has been in talks with banks for $2 billion financing in order to buy back up to $1.5 billion worth of shares from early investors Sequoia and Lightspeed, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The remaining $500 million in secured debt will be for primary capital purposes.
It would value the company at around $10 billion.
If a deal goes through it would take Argawal’s shareholding to over 20%.
Oyo’s largest shareholder is Japan’s Softbank Vision Fund with nearly 48%.
Under current terms, Softbank can only amass 49.9% of the company and would need the express agreement of Agarwal and other major backers including Sequoia and Lightspeed to increase it further.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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