Ritesh Agarwal can’t save OYO

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Editor's note: Take a deep breath and pay close attention to this report card. OYO was co-founded by Ritesh Agarwal in May 2013. Since then the company has raised about Rs 16,000 crore in venture capital and Rs 5,000 crore or thereabouts in debt. That’s a total capital raise of over Rs 20,000 crore.  For the 12 months ended 31 March 2021, the latest full fiscal year for which financials are available, the company recorded operating income of Rs 3,962 crore, of which only Rs 932 crore came from India. The company recorded a total loss of Rs 3,944 crore. In the previous fiscal year, 2019-20, when the world wasn’t dealing with COVID-19, OYO had an all-time high loss of Rs 13,123 crore.   The company’s return on net worth is a negative 99.7%. OYO has a gearing ratio of 45.7%, a ratio typically calculated to check whether companies will be comfortable paying back the debt they have raised. OYO’s 45.7% is not good. Especially when you don’t have a lot of cash that can be clawed back from profits. OYO has never …