Zomato Expands ESOP Pool, Allots 1.2 Cr Stock Options

Foodtech major Zomato has expanded the pool size of its employee stock option plan (ESOP) with the allotment of nearly 1.2 Cr stock options to eligible employees.

In an exchange filing on Wednesday (October 2), the Deepinder Goyal-led company said it has received approval from its board to grant 1,19, 97, 768 stock options under various ESOP schemes.

The food delivery and quick commerce giant has granted 116 stock options under the Foodie Bay ESOP 2014 scheme and 1.19 Cr stock options under Zomato ESOP 2021 scheme.

Each stock option is convertible into one fully paid up equity share of a face value of INR 1 each and can be exercised within either 10 years from the date of vesting of options or 12 years from the date of Zomato’s public listing, whichever is later under its ESOP schemes.

The equity shares that will be allotted after the exercise of the stock options will not be subject to lock-in, the filing showed.

Shares of Zomato opened today’s trading session at INR 274.15 apiece on the BSE. As per the stock’s last opening price, the newly-allotted shares have a cumulative worth of INR 328.91 Cr.

This is not the first time Zomato has floated fresh ESOPs this year as it seeks to retain top executives and attract talent from global startups. In August, Zomato alloted of more than 35.17 Lakh equity shares. Prior to that, the foodtech major had said that it has received shareholders’ nod to adopt and implement a new employee stock option plan, Zomato ESOP 2024, to grant 18.26 Cr employee stock options.

The developments come at a time when Zomato has been consistently improving its profit margins on the back of strong growth in its business, particularly in its quick commerce vertical Blinkit.

Zomato’s consolidated net profit surged multifold year-on-year (YoY) to INR 253 Cr in Q1 FY25, while revenue from operations jumped 74% YoY to INR 4,206 Cr.

The company is looking to further shore up its revenue by focussing on going-out business. As part of this, Zomato has acquired Paytm’s events and movie ticketing subsidiaries and also launched ‘Book Now, Sell Anytime’ feature for tickets bought for any live event on the Zomato app.

Zomato has also been launching new features to woo customers and discontinuing offerings which didn’t work. Recently, it rolled out ‘Zomato for Enterprise’ (ZFE) for more seamless food expense management of the orders placed by corporates and their registered employees.

However, the tax woes of the foodtech major continue to worsen. Last month, West Bengal GST authorities slapped the company with a fresh goods and services tax (GST) demand and penalty order of over INR 17.70 Cr. In August, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal authorities levied a GST fine of INR 4.59 Cr on Zomato. 

Shares of Zomato were trading 1.6% lower at INR 269.75 apiece on the BSE at 1:58 PM today.