First read is on us.

Subscribe today to keep up with the latest travel industry news.

EaseMyTrip Leadership Change: Rikant Pittie Takes Over as CEO After His Brother Resigns


EaseMyTrip

Skift Take

EaseMyTrip’s push into study tourism and EV manufacturing shows ambition to expand, but the leadership change and financial pressures leave questions about execution. Shareholders will be watching closely.
Summarize this story

Select a question above or ask something else

Summarize this story

Nishant Pitti, co-founder and CEO of Easy Trip Planners, the parent company of Indian online travel agency EaseMyTrip, on Wednesday announced his resignation, effective January 1, 2025. His brother Rikant Pittie, currently serving as the company's chief financial officer, has been appointed as the new CEO “with immediate effect”.

The announcement comes amidst broader strategic shifts within the company and a steady reduction in promoter shareholding over the past year. Promoter shareholding refers to the percentage of a company’s shares owned by its founders.

In a letter to shareholders, Nishant Pitti cited "personal reasons" for stepping down. The company echoed this in its official filing to the stock exchange, confirming the change.

“Nishant Pitti has resigned and shall cease to be the ‘Chief Executive Officer’ of the company, with effect from January 01, 2025, on account of personal reasons,” the company said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.

Rikant Pittie, the new CEO of Easy Trip Planners. Source: LinkedIn

Promoters

Over the past few months, Nishant has also reduced his stake in EaseMyTrip. Following Tuesday’s latest offload of 1.41%, his holding now stands at 12.8%. Earlier, in September, Nishant offloaded 13.91% stake in the company.

Rikant Pittie, the incoming CEO, holds a 25.88% stake. His portfolio includes directorships in subsidiaries and affiliated ventures, such as Easy Builders, Spree Hotels, and Easy Green Mobility, highlighting EaseMyTrip's diversification efforts.

According to the company filing, Rikant Pittie’s last drawn remuneration was INR 9.6 million ($111,905).

With Nishant Pitti’s latest shares offload, the combined promoter holding has declined to 48.97% from 50.38%. The other Pitti brother, Prashant Pitti, who is the company’s managing director, holds 10.29% stake in the company.

Strategic Shifts: Diversification and Expansion

EaseMyTrip has been actively expanding its business beyond air ticketing, a move emphasized in its fiscal 2025 strategy. Key developments include:

  • International Study Tourism: In November, EaseMyTrip acquired Planet Education Australia to enter the study tourism segment. This acquisition aligns with EaseMyTrip's vision to expand its service offerings and create a more comprehensive travel ecosystem for its customers while tapping into study tourism, the company had said in a release.
  • Electric Vehicle Manufacturing: The company announced plans to venture into the EV bus market under its Easy Green Mobility subsidiary. “The company will invest INR 2 billion ($23.3 million) for research and development, product development, and establishing a manufacturing plant over the next 2-3 years,” EaseMyTrip said in a statement.
  • Medical Tourism: In September, EaseMyTrip announced the acquisition of a 49% equity stake in Pflege Home Healthcare and 30% in wellness and healthcare product company Rollins International.

The acquisitions reflect the company's vision of reducing dependence on traditional air travel bookings and tapping into high-growth markets.

Financial Performance: Mixed Signals

However, EaseMyTrip's latest financials highlight challenges amidst diversification efforts. For the quarter ending September 30, the company reported:

  • A 45% decline in consolidated net profit to INR 260 million ($3 million) year-on-year.
  • A 2.1% increase in net sales to INR 1.4 billion ($16.3 million).
  • A 37.5% drop in profit before interest, depreciation, and taxes to INR 423 million ($5 million).

Managing Director Prashant Pitti attributed the profitability decline to higher expenses from recent acquisitions, which are yet to yield proportional revenue growth. “We have acquired three companies. And being a smaller scale company, their employee expenses, marketing expenses have added up. However, the revenues have not been added up so much,” he said during the earnings call in November.

Up Next

Hotels

How Data Quality Issues Impact Global Hospitality Operations

There are wide discrepancies in data quality for hotel transactions across global regions, with the largest occurring in Asia-Pacific. Because hotels and agencies need to harness data quality to thrive, they must take a more nuanced regional approach to monitoring potential issues.
Sponsored
Online Travel

Expedia Is Open to AI Partnerships and M&A

Expedia has its hands full getting Hotels.com and Vrbo back on track, and the antitrust environment may not be optimal for acquisitions these days. But if the company comes across a hard-to-resist M&A opportunity, never say never.
Tourism

What Drove China’s Lunar New Year Tourism

This year’s Lunar New Year rush in China isn’t just about big cities — smaller, heritage-rich destinations and visa-free policies played a major role in trips over eight days.