In conversation with Zee Business Managing Editor and Market Guru Anil Singhvi, EaseMyTrip’s Wholetime Director Prashant Pitti reveals some interesting aspects of the agreement with Just Dial and also speaks about dividend. EaseMyTrip, an online travel company, has recently signed a pact with Just Dial, a local search engine giant, for flight bookings, says Pitti while explaining the details of the joint venture. 

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Pitti says, "Just Dial will be our partner to book flight tickets, which would be powered by EaseMyTrip. Flight bookings can exclusively be booked from the Just Dial application or website as EaseMyTrip is the only vendor on the local search engine platform." 

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Without disclosing much about the revenue sharing pattern, Pitti explains that Just Dial is one of India’s pioneer local search engines with millions of customers, and this strength could be leveraged by EaseMyTrip. Pitti added, "We’re expecting quite a good amount of volume from this pact as Just Dial itself has a large user base." 

Pitti says, this tie-up allows travellers to book tickets on Just Dial and doesn’t divert them to EaseMyTrip’s platform for booking purposes. He adds that besides Just Dial, the company also has a tie-up with InterMiles website, wherein the Jet Privilege points can be redeemed. The company had also worked with Paytm in the past. 

Speaking about the dividend announcement made by the company, Pitti says, "EaseMyTrip is a cash-rich company with around Rs 208 crore amount of surplus in cash and FD format. The company has been profitable, despite covid impact in last the nine months." 

He adds, "The company’s EBITDA has been positive at over Rs 43.3 crore, similarly PAT has also been good. Our dividend outlook is to maintain the ROC of the company. Moreover, the additional cash, which we have has nothing much to do, as our CAPEX is limited being a technology company." 

Before concluding Pitti says, the whole industry is seeing a reduction of 30 per cent in the month of April as compared to March 2021. Moreover, he says that when the vaccine drive kicks in, expectations are that the travel industry will get normalised.

EaseMyTrip is an Indian online travel company founded in 2008, it provides hotel bookings, air tickets, holiday packages, bus bookings among other services. The company’s shares are trading around 1 per cent higher today at Rs 172 apiece.