Oyo Makes European Push With $415 Million Vacation Rental Acquisition

Fast-growing Oyo Hotels & Homes is furthering its global expansion plans with the acquisition of Amsterdam-based vacation rental company @Leisure Group for $415 million (€369.5 million).

Media giant Axel Springer sold its 51 percent stake for $202 million (€180 million) with other shareholders also exiting. The deal is expected to close in June.

In 2018, @Leisure Group reported $150 million (€133.2 million) in revenue with a profit (EBITDA) of $27.9 million (€24.8 million). Tobias Wann, @Leisure Group’s CEO, will join OYO’s leadership group as CEO, Vacation Homes.

See Oyo founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal at Skift Forum Asia

Oyo said the homes segment of the accommodations market represented a “massive opportunity,” with Europe being the largest market.

The company @Leisure Group operates a number of different brands in the sector, with some, including Danland and Belvilla, offering a fully managed service. It also owns Traum-Ferienwohnungen, which is a subscription-based home management service. It has around 115,000 properties across its various brands.

“@Leisure Group is among the very few companies in the world with an Oyo-like full-stack approach to vacation rentals management, having built deep data-driven capabilities in revenue management, homeowner engagement, and property management services,” said Maninder Gulati, Oyo’s global chief strategy officer.

Ritesh Agarwal founded Oyo in 2013 at the age of 19. Four years later, the company added a separate homes segment. Oyo has received about $1.7 billion in funding over a number of rounds, according to Crunchbase, with Airbnb recently putting in $75 million.

“@Leisure Group has proven capabilities in helping develop Europe into a vacation rentals hot spot, and we are keen to leverage their competencies towards ensuring beautiful vacation rental and urban homes experience for millions of tourists from every part of the world,” Agarwal said about the acquisition.

Oyo claims to be the sixth largest hotel chain in the world and recently signed a distribution deal with accommodation wholesaler Hotelbeds to further its ambitions in the sector. It has expanded beyond India and Southeast Asia into the United Kingdom and United States.

See Oyo founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal at Skift Forum Asia