Adani buys 30% in Trainman for Rs 3.5 cr
The largest company in billionaire Gautam Adani’s group, Adani Enterprises, has acquired a stake of about 30% in Start Enterprises Pvt Ltd, the company that runs the online railway ticketing website Trainman. Adani Enterprises revealed last month that it has inked a contract to buy 100% of SEPL.
Adani Enterprises announced in a stock exchange filing on Saturday that its wholly-owned subsidiary Adani Digital Labs Pvt Ltd has paid Rs 3.56 crore for a 29.81 percent share in SEPL.
In the fiscal year 2022–23 (April 2022–March 2023) of SEPL, its revenue was Rs 4.51 crore.
When describing SEPL last month, Adani Enterprises called it “an online train booking and information platform,” but on Saturday, it said the company specializes in “e-commerce and website development.”
In response to the announcement made last month, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh attempted to imply that Adani’s acquisition of Trainman might ultimately lead to the acquisition of IRCTC, which provides ticketing and other services for the Indian Railways.
IRCTC had released a statement refuting the claim. In a statement describing the e-ticketing market, IRCTC stated that approximately 14.5 lakh reserved tickets are purchased everyday by Indian Railways. Nearly 81% of these are e-tickets, purchased directly through IRCTC. There is therefore no rivalry between IRCTC and its agents, such as Trainman.
As a B2C partner of IRCTC, Trainman contributes 0.13 percent of all reserved ticket sales, the company had stated, adding that because these businesses are integrated with IRCTC, clients generally benefit from a seamless booking procedure.
Trainman is an Indian travel booking app created in 2011 by Vineet Chirania and Karan Kumar that enables passengers to check the status of their PNRs (Passenger Name Records), forecasts their chances of getting a confirmed seat if they are on a waitlist, and offers real-time updates on seat availability, running status, timetable, coach position, fare calculator, etc.
The Adani Group has made a second investment in the travel booking and information industry with Trainman. Adani Enterprises acquired a small minority investment in Flipkart’s Cleartrip Pvt Ltd, an online travel aggregator, in October 2021.
