Ride-hailing company Ola is carrying out layoffs of hundreds of its employees and has halved losses by cutting back on driver-related expenses and advertising costs as it prepares for an initial public offering (IPO).

Backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Ola is set to lay off 200 people of its total base of 4,500 employees and will move 150 employees to newer verticals of Ola Electric Mobility and Ola Financial Services, as per company sources. In a statement, Ola said the company was undergoing a "redesigning of the organisation" with a focus on growth and profitability.

Also read:

Ola, looking to cash in on Uber setback, to launch London operations

"Over the past couple of years, Ola has grown its core mobility business and introduced new business verticals such as financial services, food, public transport technology, and electric mobility. With a view to become more nimble and have a sharper focus on growth and profitability, we are redesigning the organisation to build a structure that strengthens and leverages our local and global scale and enables faster decision making across all of Ola's group companies," Ola said in a statement.

"Our organisational redesign aims to right-size all our operations as well as leverage skills sets and experience of mobility employees in available positions in new business verticals," the company said.

Also read: Ola, Uber face severe shortfall of drivers and cars

Bhavish Aggarwal-led company is preparing for an IPO in the next 18-24 months and is looking to reach profitability soon. The company has halved its losses in FY19 to Rs 1160 crore from Rs 2,676 crore the previous fiscal.

Ola scaled back on advertising expenses and driver-related expenses to reign in losses, as per the filings. Employee benefits expenses came down to Rs 413 crore from Rs 495 crore, driver related expenses came down to Rs 1,697 crore from Rs 2,398 crore, and advertising promotional expenses were down by half to Rs 153 crore from Rs 382 crore.

Ola's FY19 revenues jumped by 16 percent to Rs 2,155 crore, while it’s consolidated revenues, including all its subsidiaries, increased to Rs 2,783 crore. This means that revenue from Ola's subsidiaries apart from its main ride-sharing business doubled from about Rs 360 crore in FY18 to Rs 600 crore in FY19.

Also read: Ola extends support to Delhi Odd-Even scheme, waives off peak pricing

Ola's consolidated business for FY19 included its transportation business, comprising cab-hailing business, which saw revenues grow 16 percent to Rs 2,116 crore, the leasing business, which comprises leasing of cars to drivers, which saw revenues grow significantly to Rs 537 crore from Rs 337 crore in FY18. It also included its wallet business see revenues of Rs 45 crore from Rs 13 crore and the food business, comprises food delivery and cloud kitchen business, which raked in Rs 81 crore.

In FY19, Ola also saw a demand of Rs 114 crore for TDS to be deposited, and the company said it has paid 20 percent of the demand, amounting to Rs 22 crore under protest. The company had also filed an appeal before the CIT (A) and a stay was granted by the assessing officer.

In 2019, Ola launched two international operations, in the UK and New Zealand, after having launched in Australia early in 2018. Ola announced this week that it is set to launch operations in the UK in the next few weeks and is onboarding drivers to its platform. In the UK, Ola will be at an advantage after Uber Technologies, the world's largest ride-hailing company, lost its London license this week.