MUMBAI: Zomato Ltd, the Indian food delivery startup backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co, got about 35 times more bids from anchor investors than it intended to sell in its blockbuster initial public offering (IPO), according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Gurgaon-based firm received bids worth 1.5 trillion rupees (US$20bil or RM83.99bil) from large funds compared with the 42 billion rupees (RM2.37bil) offered, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
The subscription marks one of the most popular Indian IPOs among institutional investors in recent years, as Zomato starts taking public orders for the US$1.3bil (RM5.46bil) share sale.
Zomato allocated about 552 million shares to 186 anchor investors including funds managed by BlackRock Inc and Fidelity International Ltd as well as New World Fund and Tiger Global, according to a filing, which didn’t provide any subscription figures.
The shares were sold at 76 rupees (RM4.28) each to the anchor investors, the top of a marketed range with a minimum price of 72 rupees (RM4.05).
The interest follows a blistering rally in Indian stocks this year, and signals confidence in the market debut of the country’s first real consumer Internet offering.
Zomato recently raised its IPO target by 14% as demand grew in a fast-growing Indian food-services market that Sanford C Bernstein & Co estimates will balloon to US$97bil (RM407.35bil) by 2025.
Zomato is selling about 90 billion rupees (RM5.07bil) worth of new shares in the IPO, while its shareholder Info Edge (India) Ltd is offering as much as 3.75 billion rupees (RM211.19mil) worth of stocks, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News.
At about US$1.3bil (RM5.46bil), the startup’s IPO is set to be India’s biggest since SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd’s US$1.4bil (RM5.88bil) share sale in March 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That said, Zomato’s record could soon be overtaken by digital payments services provider Paytm, which is preparing for its more than US$2bil (RM8.4bil) IPO.
Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley India, Credit Suisse Group AG, BofA Securities and Citigroup Inc are managing Zomato’s IPO. ― Bloomberg