Zomato Shares Worth Rs 646 Crore Sold by Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund on Tuesday divested its stake in online food delivery aggregator Zomato for Rs 646 crore through an open market transaction. 

According to the block deal data available on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund (MF) sold more than 2.84 crore shares, or 0.3 percent, in Gurugram-based Zomato. 

The shares were disposed of at an average price of Rs 226.85 apiece, taking the transaction value to Rs 645.84 crore. 

Axis Mutual Fund, BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, Goldman Sachs, Matthews Asia, Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong-based Optimas Capital Management, and investment management firm Polar Capital were among the buyers of Zomato's shares. 

Meanwhile, recently, Zomato increased its platform fee from Rs 5 to Rs 6, indicating a hike of 20 per cent. Currently, the increase is applicable in Delhi and Bengaluru. The hike will reportedly roll out to other cities as well. Along with Zomato, food delivery platform Swiggy has also increased its platform fee to Rs 6. In the last year, Zomato has already increased its platform fee five times. 

Both delivery platforms started charging platform fees last year. The intent behind it is to gain revenue by improving the economics of the company. After the increase in platform fees, Zomato’s shares started increasing as investors cheered the decision to raise the platform fee. 

Speaking to Moneycontrol about the platform fee, Karan Taurani, Senior Vice President-Research Analyst at Elara Capital, said, “We do not expect a significant increase in restaurant commissions in the near term, as these have largely plateaued in our assessment. The primary drivers for adjusting EBITDA as a percentage of GOV towards the management's medium-term guidance of 4-5 percent will be ad revenue and the platform fee.” 

 (With inputs from PTI)