Zomato’s shares skyrocketed 10 minutes after its market debut on Friday, following a 93.75 billion rupee ($1.3 billion) (initial public offering) IPO, India’s biggest this year.
Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, who was “excited” and “indifferent” ahead of the market listing, said that the company would “relentlessly focus on 10 years out and beyond” and would not alter its course for short term profits at the cost of long term success.
Zomato’s shares debuted at 115 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex Index, 51 percent higher than its issue price after its IPO was subscribed 40.38 times at the end of last week. The stock then rocketed up 80 percent in the opening 10 minutes, taking Zomato’s market capitalisation across the one trillion rupee mark, according to an AFP report.
The Zomato CEO, in a letter to investors, said, “Our 10+ year journey has not always been smooth. We have lived through many ups and downs – something not every company has the privilege of living long enough to do. I have made many decisions which have been good for the company, while some have caused our stakeholders a lot of heartburn. That said, we have found ourselves managing times of crisis on different occasions in much the same way – impatiently staying focused on the long term, executing relentlessly, and committing ourselves to doing the very best we can do today.”
In his letter, he also gave a shout out to the rival food delivery platform Swiggy. “India is a tough market to operate in, but if you are building to succeed in India, you are already exceptional. I say that because I believe Zomato and Swiggy are two of the best food delivery apps in the world today. We have a long way to go before we can call ourselves world class by our customers’ standards, but we are determined to get there.”
The CEO also mentioned Jio, Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Uber and Paytm, crediting them with “laying the railroads” for companies like Zomato.
Around 30 Indian companies, according to an AFP report, have announced plans to list shares this year. Zomato, which has subsidiaries of Chinese tycoon Jack Ma’s Ant Group and Uber among its shareholders, operates in 525 Indian cities, is yet to turn profitable. The company reported a loss of 8.16 billion rupees in the financial year ending March 2021.