Tiger Global Dumps Delhivery Stock Yet Again; This Time For INR 338 Cr

Venture capital (VC) firm Tiger Global on Tuesday (April 11) again offloaded the shares of logistics major Delhivery in a bulk deal.

Tiger Global’s Internet Fund III sold 1.17 Cr shares (a 1.6% stake) at INR 330 each in the open market and accrued a gain of INR 337.8 Cr via the deal. The global hedge fund sold the shares at a premium of nearly 0.6% against Delhivery’s closing price of INR 328.1 on the BSE on Monday.

There was no data available on who lapped up Delhivery’s shares that flooded the market.

Shares of Delhivery jumped 0.82% during the intraday trading to close at INR 330.80 on the BSE on April 11.

The development comes two months after the same fund dumped 1.2 Cr Delhivery shares in the open market in a deal that was pegged at INR 414.2 Cr. Then, in March, it again offloaded 0.75% stake in the company in a deal worth INR 177 Cr.

Tiger Global’s Internet Fund III owned a stake of 4.68% in the logistics major at the end of December 2022. It dumped a 1.7% stake in Delhivery in February and followed it up by reducing its stake further by 0.75% and is now likely left with a 0.63% stake in the homegrown logistics giant. 

The development comes close on the heels of Delhivery wrapping its last quarter of the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). However, there appears to be no clarity on what made the global VC fund offload its stake in the company. 

After a brief lull of two months, Delhivery is back to the scenario, which has dogged many Indian new-age listed tech companies in the past year. Last year saw the pre-IPO investors of many such companies, including Zomato, Paytm, and PolicyBazaar, flee amid plummeting share prices

The tech rout was largely the result of global macroeconomic pressures and wary investors who offloaded their stake in these portfolio companies over concerns around profitability and mounting losses. 

Delhivery listed amid the volatile market conditions last year and later saw many of its pre-IPO investors leave, including CA Swift Investments which sold 2.5% of its stake for INR 607 Cr in November 2022 after the expiry of the lock-in period.

As far as Tiger Global is concerned, it has been slashing its stake in listed Indian startups left right and centre. The VC fund also exited PB Fintech last year, post the expiration of the insurtech startup’s lock-in period.

The problem for Tiger Global in India has been complicated by regulatory pitfalls and soaring losses that its portfolio companies are facing. Be it BharatPe, which has seen a public spat between its board of directors and cofounders, or GoMechanic, which was recently hawked for parts amid allegations of financial fraud, Tiger Global has had a tough run in India lately.

Other portfolio startups such as PharmEasy and ShareChat have been putting up massive losses and some have even laid off employees to weather the ongoing funding winter. 

Despite its failings in the country, Tiger Global has been one of the most prominent global VC firms in the country and has amassed a portfolio of 120+ startups since 2014. Further, it has reportedly invested more than $6.5 Bn since its entry into India.

Even though Delhivery is one of the biggest logistics players in the country, it continues to report heavy losses. The Gurugram-based company saw its net loss zoom 54.6% to INR 195.6 Cr in Q3 FY23, up from INR 126.5 Cr reported in the same quarter last fiscal year.