Info Edge gains over 3% as Zomato acquires Uber Eats' India business

Shares of Info Edge (India) climbed as much as 3.36 per cent to hit a high of Rs 2,676 apiece on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Tuesday after food aggregator Zomato signed a definitive agreement to acquire Uber Eats, Uber's food delivery business in India, in an all-stock transaction. 

Info Edge has a stake in Zomato, which upon closing of the said acquisition, will reduce to about 22.71 per cent on fully converted and diluted basis, it said in a regulatory filing. READ MORE

At 10:21 am, the stock was trading nearly 1.5 per cent higher at Rs 2,626 apiece on the BSE. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading 104 points or 0.25 per cent lower at 41,425 levels.

Uber will get a 9.9 per cent stake in Zomato as part of the deal whose size has not been disclosed. The deal for Uber Eats, which operates in 41 cities, was signed at 3 am, and its customers will be shifted to the Zomato app from 7 am. The deal is applicable only in India and Uber Eats will continue to operate in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. According to sources the deal value is around $300- 350 million. READ MORE
 

The move, according to reports, is part of Uber’s strategy to be either number one or two in each of their businesses in every country they operate. In India, Uber Eats grew very quickly to take a 12 per cent share of the food delivery market. However, while India constituted for 3 per cent of the global gross booking of Uber Eats it also constituted for 25 per cent of its global EBITDA losses for the business segment. Intense competition in India’s food delivery market prevented India Uber Eats from taking either the first or second position, which are with Zomato and Swiggy.

Thus far in the financial year 2019-20 (FY20), shares of Info Edge have outperformed the market by surging around 41 per cent against about 5 per cent rise in the benchmark Nifty50 index.