Big block deal expected in Zomato with 7.8% shares up for grabs — seller likely to be Uber

An undisclosed stakeholder in Zomato will reportedly sell 7.8 percent, or 61.2 crore shares, on Thursday. A source said the seller is likely ride-hailing company Uber, which holds a 7.8 percent stake in Uber.

During its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, Uber reported that it had lost $245 million the second quarter of the 2021-22 fiscal, and  $707 million in first half of 2022.

Sources familiar with the matter said the 7.8 percent shares are likely to be sold for around $343 million, or Rs 48-54 per share.

What this means, basically, is that Uber has lost more money on Zomato than its stake is worth in the food delivery company.

Uber made a notional Rs 9,000 crore when Zomato got listed in July 2021. But it didn't sell them during the IPO or right after it. Today the same shares are worth just over a third of that value — Rs 3,399 crore. Zomato’s stock price fell 56.9 percent in April-June quarter.

Uber has report a net loss of $2.6 billion for the quarter under review, $1.7 billion of which was attributed to investments and revaluation of stakes in Aurora, Grab and Zomato.

This has not come as a surprise as last week, there was some chatter on Dalal Street that a key stakeholder was looking offload their shares in the food delivery aggregator.

Earlier, it was reported that shares of Zomato zoomed 20 percent and hit the upper circuit after the food aggregator recorded a strong earning in the first quarter of this fiscal. Losses narrowed down to Rs 186 crore as revenues went up 67 percent.