Fidelity International Acquires 5% Stake In Zomato, Shares Surge Over 4%

Shares of Zomato rallied over 4% on Tuesday on the BSE to close at INR 64.65 per share. Meanwhile, financial services company Fidelity International informed the stock exchanges that it has acquired a 5% stake in the foodtech giant through open market transactions.

Funds under the management of Fidelity’s FMR LLC and its direct and indirect subsidiaries and FIL Ltd and its direct and indirect subsidiaries acquired over 40 Cr shares, or 5.06% stake, in Zomato on August 18 from the open market, the filing said.

This comes as good news for the food aggregator as its shares were under pressure during the last month, with big names such as Uber, Moore and Tiger Global exiting the company following the expiration of the lock-in period for its pre-IPO investors.

The stock opened stronger at INR 62.40 on Tuesday and then kept rising to settle at the current levels. It touched an intraday high of INR 65.20. 

However, the current share price is still a far cry from the record high of INR 169.10 it achieved in November last year. The bearish trend in the current year has altogether wiped off more than 61% of investor wealth in the last nine months.

The shares of the foodtech major were in a freefall last month after the Deepinder Goyal-led company announced the acquisition of quick commerce startup Blinkit. 

Besides, the negative market sentiment due to the ongoing war in Europe and tightening monetary policies also hurt the stock.

Despite the negative trend, the shares of the Gurugram-based company have grown by more than 35% in the last one month. 

Meanwhile, a majority of other major new-age tech stocks ended in the red on Tuesday. Shares of beauty ecommerce platform Nykaa fell marginally by 0.62% to INR 1,365. 

On the other hand, Paytm shares ended almost flat at INR 776.15. Earlier last week, Vijay Shekhar Sharma was reappointed as the managing director of the firm for an additional three years at the annual general meeting (AGM). The shareholders also approved a salary hike for Sharma whose candidature was under dark clouds after three proxy advisory firms called for his ouster. 

One of the biggest losers among new-age tech stocks on Tuesday was PB Fintech, the parent company of fintech player Policybazaar. The shares of the company fell 2.25% on the BSE to INR 512.60. In the past five trading sessions, Policybazaar shares have fallen by more than 11.1%.

Logistics giant Delhivery also fell 0.15% on the BSE to settle at INR 557.50 mark on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, benchmark indices BSE Sensex rose 0.44% to 59,031 points, while Nifty50 surged 0.5% to 17,577.50 points.