Service
Mergers & Acquisitions
Sector
Digital & Technology
Date
June 2013
Deal Value
Undisclosed
ibiboGroup (MIH India), has executed a binding agreement to acquire India’s leading online Bus ticketing business, redBus.in (Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount. This transaction will expand and diversify ibiboGroup’s existing travel assets. redBus aggregates 228,000 seats per day, sells more than a million tickets a month and has 600+ full time employees. The combined volumes of redBus.in and ibiboGroup’s existing travel assets makes the group, one of the largest online travel players in India.
Avendus Capital advised redBus.in and was the sole financial advisor on the transaction.
Speaking on this event, Mr. Phanindra Sama, Co-Founder & CEO of redBus.in said “We are excited to be a part of ibiboGroup. Naspers’ strong belief in internet industry and operating experience
in multiple countries will help redBus grow into a renowned brand in the coming years.”
According to Mr. Ashish Kashyap, CEO of ibiboGroup: “Our key motivations to acquire redBus include: Strong management and founding team that will continue to run redBus as an independent operation. Second, significant leadership and market share of redBus in the online bus ticketing space. Third, this marriage leap frogs us to become an even stronger online travel player in India. Lastly, we see this as an exciting market opportunity. Online penetration of the bus market is only 5.7% compared to 28% for air travel, suggesting headroom for rapid future growth.” Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Aashish Bhinde, Executive Director (Digital Media & Technology) at Avendus said, “This transaction is notable for several reasons. For one, it brings together one of the most successful Internet investors globally with one of India’s leading Internet brands, which should make for a potent combination. It also marks the largest strategic exit of a VCfunded company, which augurs extremely well for the early-stage financing ecosystem in India.
About redBus (Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd.)
Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd. founded by 3 BITS-Pilani graduates, Phanindra Sama, Charan Padmaraju,
Sudhakar Pasupunuri owns three products - redBus™, BOSS™, SeatSeller™ serving the fragmented
bus industry in India. redBus™ is consumer facing travel brand enabling customers to buy tickets on internet, on mobile, and through call centers. BOSS™ is ERP solution built for bus operators. Over 800 bus operators in India use BOSS to manage their inventory. SeatSeller™ is GDS for bus inventory distribution. Over 10,000 retail agents and 100+ corporates including the OTAs use SeatSeller to sell bus tickets to their customers. Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd is venture funded by Seedfund (www.seedfund.in), Inventus (www.inventuscap.com) and Helion (www.helionvc.com).
About Naspers and ibiboGroup (MIH India)
Founded in 1915, Naspers is a leading multinational media and Internet group with operations in more than 133 countries. Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) since September 1994, it also has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)..The group’s principal operations are in ecommerce, pay-television & related technologies and print media. It also has minority investments in listed, integrated social-network platforms Tencent (SEHK 0700) and Mail.ru (LSE: MAIL). IbiboGroup was founded by Ashish Kashyap in 2007. The company is one of the top E-Commerce group’s in India in terms of volume and value of transactions, touching the lives of millions of buyers, sellers, merchants and suppliers. The group owns India’s leading B2C travel asset, Goibibo.com and a significant interest in B2B travel aggregator, TravelboutiqueOnline. Other portfolio businesses of the group comprise : PayU India (India’s Number one e-commerce payment aggregator), Tradus.com (Online marketplace) & Gaadi.com (Auto marketplace).
About Avendus Capital Pvt. Ltd. (“AVENDUS CAPITAL”)
Avendus Capital is a leading financial services firm which provides customised solutions in the areas of financial advisory, equity capital markets, alternative asset management and wealth management. The firm relies on its extensive track record, in-depth domain understanding and knowledge of the economic and regulatory environment, to offer research based solutions to its clients that include institutional investors, corporations and high net worth individuals/families. In recent years, Avendus Capital has consistently been ranked among the leading corporate finance advisors in India and has emerged as the advisor of choice for cross-border M&A deals, having closed around 38 cross-border transactions in the past 5 years. Avendus Securities through its Institutional Equities practice is able to offer high quality research-driven advice to help its clients take investment decisions. Avendus PE Investment Advisors manages funds raised from its investors by investing in public markets, while Avendus Wealth Management caters to investment advisory and portfolio management needs of Family offices and Ultra High Networth Individuals / families, spanning all asset classes. Headquartered in Mumbai, the firm has offices in New Delhi and Bangalore. Avendus Capital, Inc (US) and Avendus Capital (UK) Pvt. Ltd. located in New York and London respectively are wholly owned subsidiaries offering M&A and Private Equity syndication services to clients in the respective regions.
For more information, please visit www.avendus.com
