What is Emma Villas and why are we talking about it today?
In recent weeks, we have been drawn to an IPO that has gone largely unnoticed by the market, partly due to the company’s small size (barely €22MM) or the lack of similar players in the industry. We are talking about Emma Villas, a small luxury vacation home rental company that operates mainly in Italy. It manages more than 550 Italian Villas, mainly in Tuscany, with multi-year contracts where they have the exclusive management of the properties.
Their business model differs from that of Booking since they are the operator, not just a marketplace. However, we must also mention that, in terms of their international expansion, they recently launched Chiara Travel a few weeks ago. Chiara Travel is a marketplace for booking luxury villas for vacation use in the main tourist destinations of Europe ( Greece, Spain, Portugal, Croatia,..)which currently has 160 properties listed and the intention to continue growing to 600 in the short term.
The founder, CEO, and sole shareholder of the company until the IPO, holds 86% of the shares. The funds raised will be used for international expansion (they have just launched a vacation rental marketplace abroad) and investments in their technological platform and network of sales agents to attract more villas.
With the number of bookings growing at double-digits and the average price by 5.5%, with presumably continued trend in 2024, the company is at a sweet point to accelerate growth in the mid-term both through M&A and organically
