“We Hope To Achieve A Market Cap Of About Rs 200 Crore By Next Year"

What does E-Factor Experiences’ IPO announcement mean to you and to the event industry at large? It is a milestone moment for us because of various reasons, we've always wanted to go this route. Number one, we think that for anybody to expand operations and raise capital, this is one of the best ways available in the context of the economic environment that we are living and thriving in. 

It gives us both confidence and the required capital infrastructure to be able to now expand into the different segments that we are wanting to expand to. Hospitality predominantly being one of them.  

In our case, something that has gone very well is the fact that 50 per cent of our issue was reserved for qualified institutional buyers and about seven financial institutions have invested in our company. I think this is something which in the long-term is going to be extremely beneficial for anybody in our industry who's wanting to go this route.   

We know the event industry is doing great when compared to pre-Covid numbers, what is driving this growth?  

There are various things that are driving the growth of the industry including the rush of the pent-up demand, which has already gone by. Specifically in our country, I think it is stemming from the fact that the economy of our nation is doing much better than many others. The spending capacity in the last 18 months is something we've seen increase. Hotel tariffs are on the rise, even the airline fares are skyrocketing but still you don't get rooms or seats. It means that business is happening at those price levels. The balance of payment position, behaviour of foreign exchange reserves and performance of stock markets in the last twelve months are indicators of the fact that our economy overall is progressing. In the context of the positioning of our country globally, we are the fifth-largest economy in the world, and we are aiming at the number three position in probably three to five years from now.  

What is your vision for E-Factor from here on?   

Our vision for E-Factor from here on is that we hope to achieve a market cap of about Rs 200 crore by next year. And then 2025 to 2028 is the time that we are giving ourselves to reach a market cap of Rs 500 crore.   

We have seen the Government putting a lot of focus on new infrastructure and PM Modi inaugurated a few of them, how do you see it helping India in terms of becoming a global player in the event industry?  

India is gradually forging ahead to become a global player as far as the MICE sector is concerned. Better connectivity, better road infrastructure, better availability of qualitative enterprises in terms of supply chain for light and sound staging, and more are contributing to the growth. India is gradually progressing towards being able to attract more MICE events into the country and the success of the G20 Summit has been extremely influential in getting India to the map of global recognition.   

If you measure the growth of inbound MICE and wedding events into India starting today, I anticipate this to be growing at about 20 per cent for the next two years and then 40 per cent to 60 per cent thereafter for the next five years.