By M. Sriram
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian food delivery giant Swiggy recorded a $200 million loss for the nine months to December 2023, according to an internal document of the company, which is looking to list on the stock market.
The SoftBank-backed company could list by the end of this year, sources previously told Reuters. India’s stock market is booming although domestic and foreign investors have become more circumspect about IPOs by Indian startups amid concerns of unrealistically high valuations of companies still making losses.
For the full fiscal year 2022-23 Swiggy made a loss of 41.8 billion rupee ($500 million), according to the document. But the company’s lower wage payouts and cuts in marketing spending will help it trim losses for the full year 2023-24, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, without wishing to be identified.
The document showed that losses stood at 17.3 billion rupees $207 million during April to December 2023 – the first nine months of fiscal year 2023-24.
That loss was on a revenue of $1.02 billion during the same period, compared with fiscal year 2022-23 revenue of $1.05 billion, the document showed.
Swiggy did not respond to queries seeking comment.
India’s stock market has surged 28% over the past year and many companies plan listings, but they facing discerning investors.
Digital payments firm Paytm, still loss-making, has seen its shares drop by 80% since its 2021 listing, with the company facing criticism from analysts at the time for valuing itself too high.
Swiggy’s rival Zomato also saw its shares nosedive after a 2021 listing but they have surged 45% this year after posting two successive quarterly profits.
Swiggy was valued at $10.7 billion by investors in 2022. It started with meal deliveries but has gradually expanded into delivering groceries and also provides restaurant bookings.
(Reporting by M. Sriram; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Susan Fenton)
