Meru looks at Rs 600 cr revenue

Company is planning to roll out services in 10 cities

Mumbai-based Meru Cab is aiming at a turnover of Rs 600 crore this fiscal and plans to start the radio taxi services in Goa and Kolkata within six months.

Meru Cab, part of the V-Link Fleet Solutions, is looking at rolling out services in 10 cities within a year including in Uttar Pradesh, where the government has come out with a favourable policy.

"For Meru, we are expecting a revenue of Rs 600 crore this financial year 2014-15. We have been growing at 35 per cent Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for last five years and will continue with that," Meru Cabs Group CEO Siddhartha Pahwa told PTI.

In the 2013-14 fiscal ended March 31, Meru had clocked revenues of Rs 450 crore.

On expanding the network, Pahwa said: "We clearly believe that Kolkata and Goa are two areas where we would start services in next six months.

"We believe that there are at least 10 more cities such as Kolkata, Chandigarh, Goa, where good quality radio taxi services are required and we would be launching there in next 12 months."

Apart from this, the group today launched Genie Cabs in the NCR region, an economical city transportation service with hatchback cars -- Ford Figo, Toyota Liva, Tata Indica Vista and Maruti Ritz.

According to Pahwa, the Uttar Pradesh government has recently come up with schemes for radio taxi services and Meru is evaluating starting the services in Lucknow and Kanpur.

On whether Meru will seek additional investments from PE funds for expansion, Pahwa said it is a cash positive company and generating enough reserve every year to fund growth.

"We have private equity fund India Value Fund, which has invested for us in the last seven years. They hold a significant majority stake in our share holders. And any further capital is required, IVF is ready to contribute funds in this business for future growth possibilities," he added.

Genie Cabs would charge Rs 16 per km - with a base fare of Rs 100 for the first 5 km. It would be 30 per cent lesser than Meru.

"Gennie is very specific for daily commute use. The whole intent is to democratise the daily commute on daily basis," Pahwa said.

The company will start the services with 100 cars from tomorrow and in the next six months would reach about 1,000 cars. Meru has already launched Genie Cabs in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune.