Food delivery aggregator Zomato has raised ₹8,500 crore by selling equity shares to qualified institutional investors. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Food delivery aggregator Zomato has raised ₹8,500 crore by selling equity shares to qualified institutional investors, mainly domestic mutual fund houses, to fund its expansion and growth plans.

Zomato, which also owns quick-commerce firm Blinkit, had launched its Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue on November 25, which closed on Thursday.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, Zomato informed that it has raised ₹8,500 crore through a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue. This is the first major fundraise since the company got listed on the stock exchanges in July 2021.

The Fund Raising Committee of Zomato’s board approved the allotment of 33,64,73,755 (33.65 crore) shares to eligible qualified institutional buyers at an issue price of ₹252.62 apiece, aggregating to ₹8,500 crore.

These shares were allotted to investors at 5% discount from the floor price, which was fixed at ₹265.91 per share.

Four domestic mutual fund houses — ICICI Prudential, Motilal Oswal, HDFC and Kotak — were allotted over 5% of the equity shares offered in the QIP issue.

Motilal Oswal emerged as the biggest participant picking up 21% share of the allocation by investing around ₹1,750 crore.

Recently, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal had said that the proposed fundraise is meant to strengthen its balance sheet.

The funds raised through the QIP issue will be used for the growth and expansion plans of Zomato as well as its quick commerce business Blinkit.

Zomato has four businesses at present including food delivery, quick-commerce (Blinkit), business-to-business (B2B) supply arm Hyperpure and District, a platform for users to book dining, movies, live performances, sports events, shopping, and staycations.

As per the latest shareholding pattern, public shareholding stood at 98.73% in Zomato. The company’s Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal holds 4.18% as he is listed among public shareholders.

Zomato has a market cap of nearly ₹2.47 lakh crore. The company’s shares closed at ₹279.50 apiece on Friday, down 2.31% from their previous close on the BSE.