Ant-backed Zomato soars in India market debut, valued at $12 billion

BENGALURU (Reuters) – In the first stock market listing of an Indian startup valued at more than $1 billion, shares of food delivery firm Zomato Ltd opened at a 52.6% premium to their offer price on Friday, gaining a market valuation of about $12 billion.

Shares opened at 116 rupees in pre-open trade compared to the initial public offering (IPO) price of 76 rupees.

The company is offering 1.23 billion shares for sale at the higher end of its price band, with the size of the IPO coming up to 93.75 billion rupees.

The listing, which was advanced by four days, comes as India’s stock market is near all-time highs, with strong interest for digital companies backed by foreign funds.

The home-grown food aggregator, launched in 2008, operates in about 525 cities in India and has partnered with close to 390,000 restaurants.

The company’s offering last week drew bids worth $46.3 billion as it was more than 38 times oversubscribed, with big institutional investors also placing major bets.

($1 = 74.5250 Indian rupees)

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