Zomato stock drops as 612 million shares go for sale on discount

The selling undisclosed shareholder in the block trade offered the stock at between Rs 48 and Rs 54 a piece

Shares of of India’s Zomato Ltd declined as an undisclosed shareholder offered to sell 612 million shares at a discount, a stake matching that held by Uber Technologies. 

Zomato fell as much as 9.5 per cent in Mumbai shortly after opening on Wednesday, before paring the drop to 1.6 per cent at Rs 54.65 as of 9:55 a.m. local time. 

The selling shareholder in the block trade offered the stock at between Rs 48 and Rs 54 a piece, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News late Tuesday. The discount versus the last closing price was as wide as 13.6 per cent. BofA Securities is the sole bookrunner of the block trade. 

Business Standard reported on Tuesday that Uber is the holder disbursing the shares. Uber owns 612.2 million shares in Zomato, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Zomato raised $1.3 billion with its offering about one year ago, opening room for a slew of Indian startups that tapped investors through first-time share sales in the South Asian country. Shares of the Indian online food-delivery platform plunged last week following the expiry of a lock-up period for investors in the company prior to the offering. 

Pre-IPO investors in the New Delhi-based company include China’s Ant Group Co., Info Edge India, Uber Technologies Inc. and Sequoia Capital. 

Zomato shares jumped 20 per cent on Tuesday, the most since the debut session last year, as a number of block trades changed hands after it released its quarterly performance report. The result showed a smaller-than-expected loss and revenue in line with analyst expectations.