OYO Acquires Leisure Group For Europe Expansion

Indian budget hotel startup OYO, which is backed by companies like Airbnb, SoftBank and Didi, has acquired @Leisure Group from Axel Springer for around $415 million (€369.5 million), according to reports.

Axel Springer had a 51 percent share in @Leisure, and said it would receive €180 million in the deal, as well as a repayment of a shareholder loan of €60 million.

The company @Leisure has a European presence that covers 115,000 homes and about 300,000 rooms around the world, with 2.8 million travelers from 118 countries.

OYO is now valued at $5 billion and is continuously expanding, entering China last year and Japan in the past few weeks.

“We see vacation homes as a unique opportunity, with 115,000 units of homes now getting added to our already growing count of beautiful homes, and we are excited to continue maintaining our global industry leadership,” OYO’s Founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal said in a statement. “Our focus, however, will remain to be a beloved consumer brand that has the ability to create a perfect space in every place. The @Leisure Group is a great partner, and we are excited to broad-base their offerings. @Leisure Group has proven capabilities in helping develop Europe into a vacation rentals hotspot, and we are keen to leverage their competencies toward ensuring [a] beautiful vacation rental and urban homes experience for millions of tourists from every part of the world.”

Tobias Wann, the CEO @Leisure, will become the CEO of Vacation Homes at OYO as part of the deal.

“We are delighted to join forces with OYO in its mission of creating quality and beautiful spaces,” he said in a statement. “@Leisure Group was started with a similar mission to identify and service all forms of vacation and urban home rentals, focusing on delivering a hassle-free experience to both homeowners and guests. I am delighted to share that we’ve successfully achieved that over the past few years, and now aspire to leverage our synergies to deepen our presence in Europe and look to expand globally.”