Yatra Online, Inc. — FY2024 Form 20-F Summary
Reporting period: Fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, compared with fiscal 2023 and, where useful, fiscal 2022. This is an annual report, not a filing for calendar 2023 Q4. Financial statements are prepared under IFRS as issued by the IASB; amounts below are in Indian rupees (INR) unless stated otherwise.
Business context
Yatra operates primarily in India as an online travel company serving leisure and business customers through air ticketing, hotels and packages, and other services, including rail, bus and freight forwarding. At March 31, 2024, Yatra Online held 64.46% of publicly listed Yatra India. The company reported about 15 million cumulative travelers, 849 large corporate customers, and approximately 56,125 registered SME customers.
Financial and operating performance
| Metric | FY2024 | FY2023 | Change / context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | INR 4,189.9 million | INR 3,827.3 million | Up 9.5%; filing narrative elsewhere gives a slightly different FY2024 figure. |
| Gross bookings | INR 75,948.0 million | INR 67,397.5 million | Up 12.7%. |
| Adjusted Margin | INR 5,821.6 million | INR 5,578.9 million | Up 4.4%; company-defined, non-IFRS measure. |
| Adjusted EBITDA | INR 268.0 million | INR 422.9 million | Down 36.6%; non-IFRS measure. |
| IFRS loss for the year | INR 366.5 million | INR 288.2 million | Loss widened; basic and diluted loss per share were INR 5.60 versus INR 4.59. |
| Results from operations | Loss of INR 158.8 million | Profit of INR 79.7 million | Operating result turned negative. |
| Cash from operating activities | Use of INR 1,433.4 million | Use of INR 1,962.3 million | Cash use improved, but remained substantial. |
Air gross bookings increased 15.1%; hotels and packages gross bookings increased about 7%. Adjusted Margin increased in both segments, but air ticketing Adjusted Margin as a percentage of gross bookings declined to 6.9% from 7.7%. Hotels and packages margin was 13.0%, unchanged from FY2023. Other services margin was 8.0%, up from 6.3%.
Liquidity, debt and cash flow
At March 31, 2024, cash and cash equivalents were INR 1,742.0 million and term deposits were INR 2,757.8 million, of which approximately INR 420.3 million was pledged. Borrowings were INR 638.2 million, down from INR 2,352.7 million a year earlier; lease liabilities were INR 215.7 million. The company reported INR 1,294.1 million in undrawn borrowing facilities. Trade and other receivables rose to INR 4,637.2 million from INR 3,061.2 million, and advances and other current assets rose to INR 1,487.9 million from INR 951.9 million.
Cash used in investing activities was INR 2,295.5 million, mainly reflecting increased term deposits and technology-related investment. Financing activities generated INR 5,133.0 million in the audited cash-flow statement, including proceeds associated with Yatra India’s IPO and repayment of borrowings and factoring. Yatra India’s IPO raised INR 7,750 million in total; Yatra Online also received approximately US$21 million from shares sold by its subsidiary. The parent repaid its US$10 million related-party note in full in September 2023. Management said available cash and expected operating cash flows should support existing operations for at least 12 months, while acknowledging possible need for additional resources as circumstances change.
Capital expenditure was INR 525.4 million in FY2024. Management expected approximately INR 450–600 million of capital expenditure in FY2025. No formal revenue or profitability guidance is provided in the filing.
Material changes, commentary and risks
- Travel demand supported growth in bookings, particularly air ticketing. Revenue from air ticketing nevertheless declined slightly, and management cited lower airline incentive arrangements as a partial offset to booking growth.
- Personnel expense increased 17.4%, and marketing and sales promotion expense increased 36.7%. Including customer promotions and loyalty costs recorded as revenue reductions, total marketing spend was INR 3,563.8 million, up 12.1%.
- Finance income increased to INR 170.7 million, primarily as term deposits grew. Finance costs fell to INR 287.0 million as borrowings were repaid.
- Yatra cited airline supplier concentration and reduced commissions, incentives and GDS fees as significant risks. Air India’s domestic inventory shift to a single GDS reduced Yatra’s access and associated incentives. Go First’s suspension of operations also disrupted ticket inventory.
- Competition may pressure fees, margins and customer acquisition costs. Other material risks include supplier and customer credit exposure, seasonality, foreign-exchange movements, cybersecurity and privacy obligations, and access to financing.
- Management identified a material weakness in documentation of review controls affecting multiple accounts and the financial close. A weakness involving IT controls in the freight business was remediated; the review-control weakness remained unremediated at March 31, 2024. The auditor issued an adverse opinion on internal control effectiveness, while giving an unqualified opinion on the IFRS financial statements.
- The filing discloses substantial tax and other proceedings. Among the stated contingent liabilities at year-end were INR 311.9 million of service-tax/GST notices and INR 286.9 million of income-tax notices, for which management recorded no provision, assessing payment as not probable. A separate demand notice sought INR 148.69 million from subsidiary TSI Yatra, which disputed the claim.
- After year-end, the board formed a restructuring committee to evaluate simplification of the corporate structure. Yatra India also agreed to acquire an additional 49% of a travel joint venture, bringing its holding to 99%.
Investor verification priorities
- Reconcile the filing’s differing FY2024 revenue and net-loss references: the audited statements report revenue of INR 4,189.9 million and loss of INR 366.5 million, while other narrative passages contain different values.
- Confirm the cash-flow figures against the audited statement: operating cash use was INR 1,433.4 million; the filing’s narrative contains inconsistent descriptions of comparative-period cash flows and financing proceeds.
- Review the quality and collectability of receivables, which increased materially, and the terms, availability and security requirements of factoring and other credit facilities.
- Track remediation of the material weakness and any subsequent control or reporting developments.
- Assess outcomes and potential cash exposure from tax proceedings and the disputed insolvency claim, and monitor airline/GDS access, commissions and supplier concentration.