Zomato shares under pressure after Softbank offloads remaining stake in food-delivery firm

Shares of the food-services aggregator Zomato in trade on Monday (December 11) were trading with a cut of 0.75 per cent at Rs 119 per share, while at day's low it hit a price of Rs 118.8 per share. From Thursday's close, the stock has lost over 2 per cent.

The drag in the stock comes as SVF Growth (Singapore) Pte Ltd, the venture capital fund run by Softbank, sold its remaining 9,35,69,368 equity shares in the entity at a price of Rs 120.5 per share, NSE Bulk deal data showed. The sale was executed at a premium of 0.5 per cent over Friday's close.

Japan's Softbank's Svf Growth (Singapore) Pte Ltd held a 2.17 per cent stake in Zomato as of the quarter ending September.

In multiple bulk deals in the counter, shares of Zomato were bought by Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund,  
Invesco Mutual Fund (MF), Sundaram MF, Edelweiss MF, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Goldman Sachs (Singapore), Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore, Societe Generale, Copthall Mauritius Investment and Citigroup Global Markets Investment.

Before this exit, Alipay Singapore Holding Pte in late November also pared its entire stake in the start up company. The firm as of September end held 3.44 per cent stake or 29,60,73,993 equity shares in Zomato.

Earlier, global brokerage HSBC in its December report maintained its buy on the food services aggregator and set a target of Rs 140. he brokerage expects a 15 per cent CAGR in the company's food delivery (FD) business over the next 4–5 years, while for the QC, or quick commerce, segment through the Blinkit platform, it sees a growth of 25–30 per cent in the same time frame. This is estimated for sustained expansion in margins. Nonetheless, the key downside risks seen for the stock in both the company's business segments are demand weakness.