Zomato share price opened 5 percent higher on August 28 after 184 million shares, worth a 2.14 percent stake, changed hands in a block deal.
While the buyers and sellers were not known immediately, sources had told Moneycontrol that Softbank was likely to sell its shares as the lock-in period for investors after the Blinkit deal ended on August 25.
SoftBank owns 3.35 percent stake in Zomato, which it was issued during the Blinkit deal for selling its holding to the company. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital were also issued Zomato shares in the Blinkit deal, which could come to the market, said sources.
At 9:45 am, the stock was quoting at Rs 92.70 on the NSE, with trading volumes of 42 million shares.
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Meanwhile, Zomato has been increasingly focusing on profitability with the introduction of a platform fee. The platform fee of Rs 2 is levied irrespective of the cart value.
On back of this, Morgan Stanley remains 'Overweight' on Zomato, with a target of Rs 115 per share. "If Zomato remains committed to this fee structure, it has the potential to enhance its profitability significantly," it said.
In Q1 FY24, Zomato reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 2.5 percent for the food delivery segment. Morgan Stanley expects this to rise to 4 percent/4.7 percent by FY26/FY27.
For the quarter ended June, Zomato turned in a profit after tax of Rs 2 crore for the first time. Since Zomato has been loss-making for a while, it was allowed to offset that loss against a profit of future periods, according to India's tax laws, said experts.
Meanwhile, Zomato's revenue came in at Rs 2,416 crore, up 70.9 percent from the year-ago period, as demand growth recovered on cooling inflation and the strength of the food delivery platform's loyalty programme.
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