Zomato Seeks Shareholders’ Nod To Grant 18.26 Cr Employee Stock Options

Foodtech giant Zomato has sought approval from its shareholders for the formulation, adoption and implementation of a new employee stock option plan, Zomato ESOP 2024, to grant 18.26 Cr employee stock options.

In an exchange filing for its Q4 FY24 results, the company said that its board approved the proposal during its meeting today.

ESOP 2024 will entitle the employee for one fully paid-up equity share of face value of INR 1 each against each ESOP exercised.

“The exercise price shall be face value of the underlying equity shares of the company to be allotted on exercise of vested options, payable by the employee in order to exercise the vested options pursuant to the ESOP 2024,” the filing said. 

As per the stock’s last closing, the ESOP plan would translate to shares worth over INR 3,500 Cr. 

In the shareholder letter released along with its Q4 results, Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal said that the additional ESOP pool amounts to 2% of the outstanding share capital of the company on a fully diluted basis.

Saying ESOPs are important to help build a culture of “long-term thinking and innovation and create a ‘founder mindset’ amongst senior employees”, Goyal said the new ESOP pool should be sufficient at least for the next 5 years.

The ESOP costs for Zomato stood at INR 161 Cr in Q4 FY24 as against INR 122 Cr in the preceding quarter. Goyal said the company expects its ESOP costs to rise further in FY25 on account of allotment of ESOPs to the Blinkit leadership team and senior employees.

“Also, just to be clear, the creation of the new ESOP pool mentioned above by itself will not lead to any increase in ESOP charge. ESOP charge is a non-cash expense and is booked only when the ESOPs are granted to employees,” Goyal added.

Zomato clocked a 26% sequential growth in consolidated net profit to INR 175 Cr for the quarter ended March 2024. Its consolidated net profit in Q3 FY24 stood at INR 138 Cr.

Meanwhile, Zomato’s subsidiary Zomato Payment has decided to voluntarily surrender the licence it obtained from the Reserve Bank of India in January to operate as an online payments aggregator.

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