Info Edge surges 13% in 2 days on Zomato's fund-raising plan report

The stock has rallied 19 per cent so far in October.

Shares of Info Edge (India) were up 6 per cent at Rs 2,398 on the BSE on Monday, surging 13 per cent in the past two trading days after a media report suggested that Zomato was planning to raise $600 million (approx. Rs 4,200 crore). Info Edge holds a 26.38 per cent stake in Zomato Media Private Limited (Zomato).

"Online food delivery and restaurant discovery platform Zomato is finalising a fresh $600 million round of fundraising likely to be led by existing Chinese investor, Ant Financial," The Economic Times reported on Friday, October 4, quoting two people in the know.

In a clarification on the above news report, Info Edge (India) said, in the absence of any specific proposal to the board of Zomato or the company, it would be premature to comment on, confirm or deny the alleged news item at this point in time.

“The management of Zomato, in the ordinary course of business, keeps exploring its options to make potential fund raise, for its business purposes, from time to time. There is no formal proposal that has been put before the board of directors of Zomato for its consideration, nor is there any specific information available/communicated to the company about such potential fund raise exercise,” it added.

Info Edge (India) was trading higher for the fourth straight day, thus rallying 19 per cent so far in October. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex has slipped 2 per cent during the period. The stock was trading close to its all-time high level of Rs 2,432, touched on June 3, 2019.

At 12:49 pm, it was up 4 per cent at Rs 2,350, against 0.49 per cent rise in the benchmark index. The trading volumes on the counter nearly doubled with a combined 377,929 shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE so far.