RateGain’s revenue rose 153% with Sojern; its profit margin fell to 10.0% from 17.3%

01What RateGain bought

RateGain had three lines before the deal: pricing data on rivals’ rates for hotels, airlines and car-rental firms; distribution, the connections that send a hotel’s rates and rooms to online travel agents; and marketing. Sojern, which buys ads aimed at travellers using travel-intent data, made marketing the business: 80.2% of revenue in April–September, against 13.2% for data and 6.6% for distribution.² RateGain completed the purchase on 6 November 2025 for US$250.92 million (₹2,222.08 crore), about half of it paid with a US$125 million bank loan.³

How much of the 152.6% is growth rather than the purchase, the filing does not say. On the call, the finance chief, Chetan Garg, put the combined business’s organic growth at 14% for the quarter, counting Sojern’s revenue from before the deal; Bhanu Chopra, the managing director, gave 15.7% for the half-year. Within marketing in the half-year, the hotel and destination-marketing businesses each grew more than 20%, while marketing for corporate clients such as airlines, car-rental firms and cruise lines fell about 14%.⁴

Quarterly revenue had climbed from ₹295.0 crore a year earlier to ₹540.0 crore and then ₹715.5 crore in the two quarters after the deal closed.⁷

Garg gave two reasons for the dip from April–June: that quarter held a one-time gain of about US$2.5 million from the FIFA World Cup, and destination marketers spend less in July–September, when many start new budgets.⁴

02Why profit grew slower than revenue

The deal brought three costs below operating profit. Finance costs were ₹16.1 crore, against ₹0.3 crore a year earlier; amortisation of acquisition costs ₹35.4 crore, against ₹7.0 crore; and other income turned to minus ₹0.3 crore from ₹21.5 crore.² A fourth sits inside operating costs: ₹16.1 crore of deferred payment to Sojern’s team, owed only if Sojern meets revenue and EBITDA targets over three years to October–December 2028.⁴ RateGain adds that back to report an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.7% and adjusted profit of ₹90.8 crore.¹

03The loan, and what to watch

RateGain says it has now repaid 43% of the loan for Sojern.¹ Its filings show how: a further US$46.25 million paid on 5 November leaves US$31.25 million of the US$125 million HSBC and Citigroup loan, alongside a J.P. Morgan credit line of up to US$40 million drawn by Sojern. On the call, Garg put the repayment at US$53.75 million and said the US$40 million had been refinanced at a lower rate, SOFR plus 1.65 percentage points.⁴⁵⁶ Debt was ₹733 crore and cash ₹239 crore on 30 September.⁴ The company expects to be free of net debt by the year to March 2028.⁴

It kept guidance for the upper end of ₹3,000–3,100 crore of revenue this year, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.5–23.5%. New sales in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa were about US$2 million in the quarter, more than three times a year earlier, with share gains named in India, Singapore, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.⁴ To reach the range, October–March revenue must be close to April–September’s ₹1,530.4 crore.¹ Another Indian company paying for a foreign buy with debt is Persistent, for Nagarro.