A Swiggy IPO could deliver good returns, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son says

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son.

After Zomato’s stellar share listing, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son believes that food delivery firm Swiggy could have a good listing if the company decides to go public at some point.

“If they (Swiggy) go public, I believe that we will be able to see good returns from here too. That’s our expectation,” SoftBank CEO Son said in an earnings presentation on August 10. SoftBank recently led a $1.25 billion round in Swiggy, valuing it at over $5 billion.

While Zomato too was valued at around $5 billion in a private funding round early this year, it hit a market cap of over $13 billion when it was listed. Its shares have hovered around that mark since.

To be sure, Swiggy doesn’t plan to list just yet. It has thought of an IPO, but there is no timeline, and no real action being taken on it right now, CEO Sriharsha Majety told Moneycontrol in an interview last month.

Son’s presentation also revealed that Swiggy has over 20 million monthly users, and does 1.5 million orders a day as of June this year. Its orders have grown 2.5 times, while revenue has grown 2.8 times from June 2020 to June 2021.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund, pilloried less than two years ago for poor investments and over-aggression, reported a $2.14 billion profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. In May, SoftBank posted over $45 billion in annual net profits, a record for the Japanese firms, led by successful portfolio listings globally, mainly South Korea’s Coupang. However, Coupang’s shares have fallen over 15 percent since, eating into SoftBank’s profits.