SUMMARY
- Zomato has expanded its ESOP pool by allocating nearly 1.2 crore in stock options to its eligible employees.
- The company has received approval from its board to allot 1,19, 97, 768 stock options across various ESOP schemes.
- The company has issued 116 stock options under the Foodie Bay ESOP 2014 scheme and 1.19 crore in stock options under the Zomato ESOP 2021 scheme.
Foodtech giant Zomato has expanded its employee stock option plan (ESOP) pool size by allocating nearly 1.2 crore in stock options to its eligible employees.
In a regulatory filing on Wednesday (October 2), the company announced that it has received approval from its board to allot 1,19, 97, 768 stock options across various ESOP schemes.
The company has issued 116 stock options under the Foodie Bay ESOP 2014 scheme and 1.19 crore in stock options under the Zomato ESOP 2021 scheme.
Each stock option can be converted into a fully paid equity share worth Rs 1 each and can be exercised within a period of either 10 years from the date of option vesting or 12 years from Zomato’s public listing, whichever comes later under its ESOP schemes.
The equity shares that will be distributed following the exercise of stock options will not be subject to any lock-in period, as per the filing.
Zomato’s shares began today’s trading session at Rs 274.15 each on the BSE. Based on the stock’s previous closing price, the newly granted shares have a total value of Rs 328.91 crore.
Notably, Zomato’s shares dipped by 1.6% to INR 269.75 each on the BSE at 1:58 PM today.
This expansion of ESOPs is part of Zomato’s strategy to retain its top executives and attract talent from international startups. Earlier this year, Zomato issued over 35.17 Lakh equity shares. Before that, the company had received approval from shareholders to implement a new ESOP, Zomato ESOP 2024, aimed at distributing 18.26 crore in employee stock options.
Zomato’s consolidated net profit grew to Rs 253 crore in Q1 FY25, with revenue from operations surging 74% YoY to Rs 4,206 crore.
The foodtech is seeing significant improvements in its profit margins, driven by robust growth in its quick commerce segment, Blinkit.
The company is focusing on further increasing its revenue by concentrating on its going-out business. As part of this strategy, Zomato has acquired Paytm’s event and movie ticketing subsidiaries and has introduced the ‘Book Now, Sell Anytime’ feature for tickets purchased for live events on the Zomato app.
The Deepinder Goyal-led company is also introducing new features to attract customers and discontinuing those that haven’t been successful. Recently, it launched ‘Zomato for Enterprise’ (ZFE) to provide a more efficient way for corporates and their registered employees to manage food expenses through orders placed on the Zomato app.
However, Zomato continues to face tax issues. Last month, the West Bengal GST authorities issued a new GST demand and penalty order totaling over Rs 17.70 crore. In August, the GST fines on Zomato from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal authorities amounted to Rs 4.59 crore.
