The Delhi High Court ruled that generic and descriptive words cannot be trademarked, dismissing Yatra Online's plea to restrain Mach Conferences from using 'BookMyYatra'.
'Countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines have a 50 per cent increase in bookings.'
The primary drivers: Geopolitical disruptions inflating fuel and operational costs, and a surge in travel demand.
'...than by the calendar.' Indian travellers are no longer restricting their getaways to summer or winter holidays.
Ebix said the acquisition of Yatra would lend itself to significant synergies and the emergence of EbixCash as India's largest and most profitable travel services firm.
Shares of Le Travenues, which operates online travel booking platform ixigo, soared 78 per cent on their market debut (June 18) and surged 80.4 per cent in the three days over their issue price. Ixigo has joined competitors EaseMyTrip and Yatra on the bourses. Analysts believe the blockbuster response to ixigo may lead to greater scrutiny of the financial performance of other online travel aggregators (OTAs) like Easy Trip Planners, and Yatra Online.
As March draws to a close, two consecutive long weekend opportunities - Holi and Good Friday - are driving up hotel occupancy and airfares across major routes. According to travel platform Cleartrip, hotel bookings have seen a 3.5 times spike for the Holi weekend, while a 3.7 times spike has been visible in the Good Friday weekend.
Hotel rooms, usually in the range of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a night during the peak season, are now available for Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 a night.
During the Diwali week (November 10-16), airfares on major routes across the country have surged by up to 44 per cent.
Domestic mutual funds (MFs) have underpinned demand for most public floats this year, dominated by small- and mid-sized initial public offerings (IPOs). Of the 24 IPOs that have hit the market so far this financial year (2023-24, or FY24), MFs have played the role of 'anchor investors' in 20. They have subscribed to over 40 per cent, or Rs 2,850 crore, worth of shares of the Rs 6,900 crore on offer in the anchor category, according to data provided by PRIME Database, a firm that tracks primary market data.
With the Nifty50 surging past the 20,000 mark, the markets are experiencing a spate of initial public offerings (IPOs) with four issues set to raise over Rs 4,673 crore this week. Another quartet, cumulatively worth Rs 3,000 crore, is expected to launch next week. Companies like RR Kabel, SAMHI Hotels, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services, and Yatra Online are set to hit the primary market this week, while Signature Global, Updater Services, Sai Silks (Kalamandir), and Vaibhav Jewellers are slated for next week. This flurry of activity is driven by multiple factors including buoyant market conditions, increased demand for IPOs, and specific rule on the disclosure of quarterly financials.
If the deal goes through this will be second deal for Ebix in seven months, having bought Centrum group's forex and travel business Centrum Direct for a reported Rs 1,2000 crore valuation last August.
Citing the example of last year, he said many pilgrims who came for the yatra from rural areas of Uttar Pradesh had to return from Rishikesh and Haridwar as they had not registered in advance for it.
Ebix had signed the agreement last year to acquire Gurugram-based Yatra Online for an enterprise value of $338 million (about Rs 2,327 crore) in an all-stock deal. The deal was supposed to conclude in the October-December quarter after regulatory approvals but went through several extensions, according to regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
An industry source said Reliance Industries did not have a controlling stake in Yatra.com through its acquisition of Network 18. It was just a financial investment.
Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Yatra, tells Ajay Modi that Indian online travel market is definitely moving into a duopoly situation.
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