New Delhi
In a block deal on Friday, shares worth $135 million (approximately Rs 1,125 crore) in the food delivery platform Zomato changed hands, with Japanese investment giant SoftBank being the probable seller. Approximately 1.06 per cent stake in the company, equivalent to 9.35 crore shares, was transacted in the early session. Zomato’s stock was trading around Rs 121 on the stock exchange after the block deal. The likely seller in the transaction was SoftBank’s SVF Growth, which offloaded an additional 1.06 per cent stake in Zomato. However, the buyer’s identity in the deal was not immediately clear. In October, SoftBank had sold a 1.09 per cent stake in Zomato in a bulk deal worth Rs 1,040.5 crore through its venture capital fund SVF Growth. In August, SoftBank had also sold a partial stake in Zomato through bulk deals, fetching Rs 947 crore. SoftBank had acquired Zomato’s stake in June of the previous year for approximately Rs 71 per share. For SoftBank, Zomato represents a lucrative investment, resulting in substantial profits. Notably, another foreign institutional investor, Tiger Global Management, divested its entire 1.44 per cent shareholding in Zomato in August, yielding a total of Rs 1,123.85 crore.
