New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS) Online travel major MakeMyTrip on Friday announced fund raising of $200 million (approximately Rs 1,458 crore) through zero per cent interest coupon bond.

The latest fund raise for the company comes at a time when the travel and tourism industry has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"While the travel industry is in the midst of very difficult times, we are pleased with the overwhelming response to our convertible bond offering," Mohit Kabra, Group Chief Financial Officer, MakeMyTrip Ltd. said in a statement.

"This raise will bolster our cash reserves allowing us to meet the working capital requirements as business recovery gathers momentum and also pursue any investment opportunities in the growing Indian market," he said.

MakeMyTrip generated revenue of $56.8 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2020, a decrease of 61.3 per cent over revenue of $146.9 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

The decrease in revenue was primarily due to the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including lower travel demand due to travel restrictions.

However, the company's revenue in the current reported quarter increased from $21.1 million in the quarter ended September 30, 2020, an improvement of $35.7 million quarter on quarter due to the gradual recovery in travel demand.

As on December 31, 2020, the balance of cash and cash equivalents and term deposits on the company's balance sheet was $227.6 million, MakeMyTrip said.

On February 3, MakeMyTrip proposed to offer up to $175 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2028.

The Notes Offering has now been upsized from the previously announced offering of $175 million in aggregate principal amount of the Notes as the company on Friday announ give tickets to Muslim candidates, the saffron party's Minority Morcha has initiated the process of preparing Muslim cadres as potential contestants for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.

The national President of BJP's Minority Morcha, Haji Jamal Siddiqui, told IANS: "It's time to increase the representation of Muslims in electoral politics and the BJP is working on it."

Siddiqui said the Minority Morcha has identified about 50 minority dominated assembly seats in West Bengal and he believes that some of these seats will be contested by Muslim candidates in the upcoming elections.

The BJP leader pointed out that the representation of Muslims in electoral politics has declined over a period of time, which needs to be corrected.

"From pancahayat to Parliament, Muslim representation has fallen over a period of time. People also blame us (BJP) for not giving tickets to Muslims, which is not true as tickets are given on the winnability factor of a particular candidate. We have started working to improve Muslim presence in electoral politics," he said.

Talking about his plan, Siddiqui said that the BJP is grooming its Muslim leaders at the ground level. Sharing details for the West Bengal assembly polls, Siddiqui said that due to the continuous efforts in about 50 Muslim dominated Assembly seats, the party not only found workers for the booth level committees, but also found 'panna pramukh' and some of them have great potential to perform well in electoral politics.

"We have started working on these Muslim dominated Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. We believe that some strong Muslim leaders suggested by us will get BJP ticket to contest the upcoming Assembly polls," he said.

Siddiqui also stated that besides West Bengal, Muslim dominated seats in other poll-bound states of Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been also identified.

He claimed that such an exercise is required as till now majority of the Muslim leaders were more interested in getting appointed as vice chairman of some commission or some other appointments instead of fighting electoral battle.

"We are working to change this mindset and prepare Muslim workers of the party as potential candidates. The work also helps in strengthening the organisation in future and also increases the representation of Muslims in electoral politics, from panchayat to the Parliament. It will also silence the opposition which always says that BJP doesn't give tickets to Muslims," Siddiqui said.

--IANS sbh/arm