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Hospitality unicorn OYO Hotels and Homes, founded by Ritesh Agarwal, has started preparations for a potential public offering with the shortlisting of three banks — JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and Citi for the same, according to people familiar with these developments.

According to media reports, Oyo is reportedly looking at raising $1.2 billion through the public offering that would potentially happen by end of this year.

In fact, while the hospitality startup is inclined towards an IPO in India, it might also choose to list in overseas bourses. However, nothing has been finalised as yet.

This development comes in the backdrop of Oyo holding talks with technology giant Microsoft for the latter’s investment into the startup at a $9 billion valuation.

Last month, Oyo had raised debt financing in a Term Loan B of $660 million from global institutional investors. According to the unicorn, the offer was oversubscribed by 1.7 times, and it had received commitments close to $1 billion.

Oyo, which has been backed by SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed India, Airbnb, Didi Chuxing, and Grab, is among the most valuable startup from India.

Founded in 2013, Oyo has got presence across 800 cities in 80 countries, which include India, the US, the UK, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

According to reports, Oyo Founder Ritesh Agarwal, in a communication to the employees, had said its India business had become EBITDA-positive, and the company was earning the same gross profits globally in dollars since January 2021 as it did in the pre-COVID period.

Oyo joins a slew of startups from the Indian startup ecosystem, who have announced plans to go public through an initial public offering, after a stellar debut of foodtech unicorn Zomato.

Other startups, including Paytm, MobiKwik, PolicyBazaar, and Nykaa, have already received SEBI approvals to go public.

At the same time, Indian startup founders, CEOs, and VCs have written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking necessary approvals for direct listing overseas.