Zomato IPO subscribed 36% in early hours, investors across segments bid

The initial public offering of food delivery platform Zomato opened on Wednesday, with more than 36 per cent of shares offered being subscribed in the initial hours.

The offer received bids for 26.10 crore equity shares against an IPO size of 71.92 crore, stock exchange data showed.

Retail investors sought 1.91 times the portion reserved for them. Against 12.95 crore shares reserved for retail individual investors, 24.76 crore shares were bid by 13.30 hours.

Non-institutional investors put in bids for 7 per cent against their reserved portion.

The portion set aside for employees was subscribed 6 per cent, while qualified institutional buyers have put in bids for 2.69 lakh equity shares against their reserved portion of 38.88 crore equity shares.

Shares in the IPO, which is the biggest in India this year, are being offered in a price band of Rs 72-76 per share.

Zomato has already mobilised Rs 4,196.51 crore from 186 anchor investors on July 13, a day before the issue opening. The IPO size has been reduced to Rs 5,178.49 crore from Rs 9,375 crore earlier.

The company, backed by Jack Ma's Ant Group Co, is the first from a long list of Indian unicorn startups to launch an IPO. It is also the first among Indian online food aggregators.

The IPO, which will give Zomato a valuation of Rs 64,365 crore, is being touted as the second-biggest since SBI Cards and Payment Services' Rs 10,341 crore issue in March 2020. It will surpass Indian Railway Finance Corp offering in January.

Post-IPO, the valuation of Zomato will be more than the combined market capitalisation of five listed fast food and restaurant companies - Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd (the master franchise for Domino's Pizza in India, Burger King India), fast food restaurant holding company Westlife Development Ltd, Barbeque-Nation Hospitality and Speciality Restaurants.

The Zomato IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 9,000 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) worth Rs 375 crore by existing investor Info Edge (India), which is the parent company of Naukri.com, according to the information provided in the draft red herring prospectus.

The restaurant aggregator has said it will utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue for funding organic and inorganic growth initiatives (Rs 6,750 crore) and general corporate purposes.

As of March 2021, Zomato was present in 525 cities in India, with 3,89,932 active restaurant listings along with a presence in 23 countries outside India.