Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal is reportedly planning to buy back shares from two major backers in a bid to firm up control of the Indian hospitality unicorn.
The 26-year-old founder has been in talks with banks for $2 billion financing in order to buy back up to $1.5 billion worth of shares from early investors Sequoia and Lightspeed, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The remaining $500 million in secured debt will be for primary capital purposes.
It would value the company at around $10 billion.
If a deal goes through it would take Argawal’s shareholding to over 20%.
Oyo’s largest shareholder is Japan’s Softbank Vision Fund with nearly 48%.
Under current terms, Softbank can only amass 49.9% of the company and would need the express agreement of Agarwal and other major backers including Sequoia and Lightspeed to increase it further.
