DRMumbai: OYO, India’s largest hospitality provider and hotel room aggregator, inked its first business acquisition, entering into an agreement with Chennai-based service apartment company – Novascotia Boutique Homes. It is the first in a series of acquisitions, collaborations, innovations and launches for OYO, all of which are aimed at creating a strong and sustainable ecosystem for entrepreneurs, hotel partners, asset-owners and travellers.
Commenting on the development, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO, said, “We are thrilled that our very first business acquisition involves an established brand like Novascotia. Though in the niche segment of boutique homes, Novascotia brings with it the expertise in catering to the corporate travel segment, an area we have seen great potential and established ourselves as the market leader with varied offerings across 230-plus cities including all major corporate hubs.”
With this acquisition, OYO will bring its distribution, operational, transformational and technological capabilities on board for offering corporate travellers quality accommodation options with a complete focus on privacy, safety and home-like care. The acquisition will boost OYO’s portfolio by 350 rooms across locations where Novascotia has its footprints further strengthening OYO’s position as the largest full stack hospitality tech company in India.
“The acquisition forms an integral part of our inorganic growth plan, in line with our ambition to create beautiful and quality living spaces and adding value to every form of real estate. OYO is poised to deliver 180,000 keys by the end of 2018 and with Novascotia’s strength, we will be adding service apartments to our existing portfolio, which includes budget rooms, OYO Townhouse, OYO Home, enabling us to offer a wide range of choices to our customers.”
With 100 per cent of its demand coming from corporates and a healthy EBITDA of 14 per cent, Novascotia has built a strong portfolio for itself while providing executive furnished accommodation to corporates for their personnel stay in locations including Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi and Trivandrum. OYO plans to expand these offerings to 12 cities by the end of 2018. These serviced apartments are located in the heart of business hubs equipped with spacious rooms, upscale interiors, meals, gym and dining area to cater all the requirements of business travellers.
G Madhu Manohar and Girja Madhu, Co-founders, Novascotia, said, “Novascotia is a brand built over years with a lot of commitment and hard work. With OYO, we saw similar passion towards solving a problem and we are thrilled to become a part of the entity which is driven by perseverance and innovation. We are convinced that OYO with its wide experience in the hospitality business and hunger for delivering quality customer experience has every potential to take the Novascotia brand promise of ‘home away from home’ forward. We are delighted with the support received from OYO and our advisers at ANOVA Corporate Services.”
