Easy Trip Planners hits record high on heavy vols; stock up 20% in 2 days

The management asserts that strong demand uptick will bolster the travel industry.

Shares of Easy Trip Planners had hit a record high of Rs 415 and rallied 10 per cent on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade on back of heavy volumes. The stock of the travel support services company surged 20 per cent in past two trading days on hopes of healthy earnings. The company’s management is extremely bullish about the strong pentup demand in the travel industry.

At 12:49 pm; the stock was up 8 per cent higher at Rs 407.30, as compared to 0.38 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter more-than-doubled with a combined 6.75 million equity shares changed hands on the NSE and BSE. In past one month, the stock has zoomed 50 per cent, as compared to 11 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

The company operates the EaseMyTrip.com website. According to a February 2021 Crisil report, EaseMyTrip is India’s second-largest online travel platform in terms of air ticket bookings. The website is one of the fastest-growing internet companies, growing at nearly 50 per cent CAGR. 

EaseMyTrip offers 'End to End' travel solutions including air tickets, hotels, rail & bus tickets,  holiday packages as well as ancillary value-added services. The company has offices across Indian cities, including Noida, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. The international offices (as subsidiary companies) are in Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, UK, and USA.

In the past two days, Easy Trip Planners stock price has bounced back 463 per cent from its 52-week low of Rs 73.75 touched on April 19, 2021. Earlier, the company had raised Rs 510 crore through an initial public offer (IPO) with an issue price of Rs 93.50 per share. Later, the company had issued bonus share in the ratio of 1:1 i.e. one additional share or every one share held in the company.

For the first nine months ended December 2021 (9MFY22), Easy Trip Planners had posted 167 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 825 crore. Adjusted revenue grew 208 per cent YoY at Rs 3,020 crore. The company continues to remain extremely optimistic about the coming quarter as the company will continue to strengthen its lean and efficient infrastructure.

Easy Trip Planners is anticipating demand uptick to boost travel and tourism segment after easing of travel curbs. "With minimal finance cost and low depreciation and capex going forward, we anticipate the majority of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) flowing down to profit after tax (PAT)," the company said in a statement.

The management also suggested that online travel was one of the worst-hit sectors due to pandemic. "With recovery likely to be U-shaped at best, domestic travel in India is set to recover faster relative to international travel (including hotels and holiday packages). For domestic travel, the industry should reach pre-Covid volumes by early 2021,” added the company.