Zomato advances its IPO on strong demand; likely to open on July 14

Online food ordering and delivery app Zomato has decided to prepone the launch of its initial public offering (IPO) to next week from July 19 earlier on strong interest from investors.
 
The IPO will now be launched in the middle of July, most likely on July 14, Mint reported citing sources.
 
"The red herring prospectus was filed earlier this week and only the Registrar of Companies' (RoC) approval is awaited. Given the strong investor demand, the company and bankers have decided to advance the launch timeline," the publication quoted a source as saying.
 
There has been a great demand for the IPO from domestic as well as foreign investors, and a few foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are likely to enter the Indian market for the first time because of the IPO, the publication reported.
 
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had granted approval to Zomato IPO earlier this month. The company had filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) in April.

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Info Edge (18.55 per cent) is one of Zomato's leading investors, along with Uber BV (9.13 per cent), Alipay Singapore Holding Pte Ltd (8.33 per cent), Tiger Global (6 per cent), Sequoia Capital (5.98 per cent), co-founder Deepinder Goyal (5.51 per cent), and Temasek Holdings subsidiary (3.65 per cent).
 
On Monday, Info Edge said it will sell only 50 per cent, or Rs 375 crore, of the initial offer as offer-for-sale (OFS) in Zomato's IPO.
 
Zomato will use the IPO proceeds for acquisitions and organic growth plans. In fiscal 2020, the company witnessed a gross order value of Rs 11,221 crore. Its premium subscription programme 'Zomato pro' recorded 1.4 million members till December 31.
 
The delivery platform is the first in a long queue of startups to launch IPOs. Next in line are payment services platform Paytm, e-commerce giant Flipkart, online insurance platform Policybazaar, and cosmetics retailer Nykaa. India's IPO rush comes as the pandemic pushes millions of people to bank on online platforms for everything from groceries and medicines to apparel and cosmetics.