Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is planning to sell 3 per cent stake in Zomato Ltd via a block deal, reported CNBC Awaaz on Tuesday. The report said that the $200 million block deal is likely to happen on November 30. The floor price is fixed at Rs 60 per share which is a 5.59 percent discount from the current market price.
Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group currently owns 13.3 per cent shares in the Indian food delivery firm, according to the news agency Reuters. It had previously reported that Uber Technologies had sold its 7.8 per cent stake in Zomato for $392 million via a block trade.
This development comes as Zomato has suffered in the public market amid a meltdown of tech stocks this year. The company’s stock price has fallen by more than 50 per cent from its peak of Rs 162 on the BSE. The growth of the company’s food delivery business has also slowed.
In the September quarter, Zomato’s net loss narrowed to Rs 250.8 crore compared to Rs 434.9 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Meanwhile, revenue from operations has risen by 62.20 per cent to Rs 1,661.3 crore.
On November 19, Zomato confirmed that it has laid off under 3 per cent of its workforce. The company has said that these layoffs are based on regular performance. “There has been a regular performance-based churn of under 3 per cent of our workforce, there's nothing more to it,” a Zomato spokesperson told MoneyControl.
On November 18, the company’s co-founder Mohit Gupta left the organisation. Zomato's new initiatives head and former food delivery chief Rahul Ganjoo had resigned earlier that week. The head of its Intercity Legends service, Siddharth Jhawar, has also left the company.