Ride-hailing company Ola, which is expanding operations globally and reportedly eyeing an IPO in a few years, saw 92 per cent increase in losses for its cab-leasing business Ola Fleet Technologies, according to the company’s regulatory filing. The losses went up from Rs 84.5 crore in FY18 to Rs 162.3 crore in FY19. The revenue also increased by 59 per cent from Rs 370.8 crore from FY18 to Rs 591.8 crore for the last financial year wherein the revenue from the sale of services stood at Rs 484.7 crore. The company reportedly owns more than 1 lakh vehicles.
“The wholly-owned subsidiary of Ola Cabs that lease vehicles to taxi drivers and other mobility partners has shown a 1.6x growth in revenues and expenses while reporting a $22.7 million loss for FY19,” said Nikhil Kanekal, Analyst at business signals platform Paper.vc told Financial Express Online. The filing was sourced by Paper.vc. The expenses for Ola Fleet Technologies shot up 65 per cent from Rs 455.6 crore to Rs 754.1 crore.
Ola declined to respond to an email query for this story.
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The employee benefits expense was Rs 44 crore up from Rs 30 crore while finance costs stood at Rs 124 crore from Rs 84 crore in FY18. The biggest chunk in expenses was depreciation, depletion and amortisation expense — Rs 293 crore that increased from Rs 186 crore. Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies on standalone basis had reported a decline in losses from Rs 2,676 crore to Rs 1,160 crore while its total income also grew from Rs 1,860 crore to Rs 2,155 crore. Last month, Reuters reported that the company is looking to start the IPO process by end of FY21 while planning to cut 5 per cent of its 4,500 employee base. Founded in 2010, Ola is present in more than 250 cities in India along with Australia, New Zealand, and the UK and competes with Uber as its biggest competitor.
In its latest move, Ola started registering licenced drivers in London of its operational launch in the city. The company said that “over 50,000 licenced drivers will now be assured that they can continue to provide mobility services in London.” Ola was launched last year in August in the UK with Cardiff and has since then expanded to Birmingham, Liverpool, Exeter, Reading, Bristol, Bath, Coventry, and Warwick. Ola competes with Uber in its home market India, and others such as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The development came just around 24 hours after Uber reportedly lost its London licence as Transport For London found that Uber drivers had faked their identity on Uber app.
