Zomato Board To Meet On Oct 22 To Discuss QIP, Financial Results

The board of directors of Zomato Ltd. will hold a meeting on Oct. 22 to focus on two key agenda items — the potential raising of funds through a qualified institutional placement and the review of financial results for the quarter ended September.

The board will consider approving the issuance of equity shares, subject to obtaining necessary regulatory and statutory approvals, according to an exchange filing on Thursday.

In addition to fundraising discussions, the board will evaluate the company's financial performance for the recent quarter and half-year period.

This comes on the heels of Zomato's recent announcement: Their quick commerce platform Blinkit's launch of an innovative easy returns feature, allowing customers to return or exchange items within just 10 minutes of raising a request.

This initiative, aimed at enhancing customer convenience, addresses size and fit concerns particularly in categories like clothing and footwear. Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder of Blinkit, announced the feature on X, highlighting its potential to alleviate size anxiety for shoppers. After successful testing in the National Capital Region, the service has now been rolled out to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, with plans to expand to more cities soon.

Institutional investors are increasingly favouring qualified institutional placements as a funding option for Indian companies, even amid the recent boom in initial public offerings and the significant participation from qualified institutional buyers.

According to Grant Thornton Bharat, the QIP activity reached a decade-high of Rs 90,586 crore in 2024, with the June quarter witnessing unprecedented volumes and values. This trend indicates a growing institutional confidence in the QIPs as a strategic funding mechanism for companies.

Shares of Zomato ended 1.35% lower at Rs 270.55 apiece on the NSE, compared to a 0.89% decline in the benchmark Nifty 50.

Twenty-four out of the 27 analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock and three suggest 'sell,' according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analyst price targets implies a potential upside of 6.1%.