Online food delivery and restaurant discovery company Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd is seeking to sell its business unit in the United Arab Emirates, a media report said.
Citing three sources familiar with the development, The Times of India reported that Zomato is in advanced talks with Berlin-based food delivery major Delivery Hero to sell the unit for about $200-250 million (Rs 1,420-1,775 crore).
The development comes at a time when Zomato has been looking to raise as much as $1 billion for competing with homegrown rival Swiggy. Zomato has been in talks with existing investor Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group, for the fundraise.
The Times of India report also said that Zomato was trying to seal a deal with Chinese PE firm Primavera Capital for a fresh round of funding. Zomato has hired Goldman Sachs to raise the funds, it added.
Meanwhile, Zomato investor Info Edge (India) Ltd is unlikely to take part in the new round of funding as it feels that competition with Swiggy will require a large amount of capital.
“This has become a game that is slightly too big for our balance sheet to even maintain our stake, and if it is a very large round it would mean a very significant outlay on our part. So that will not be our preferred option,” said Sanjeev Bikhchandani, executive vice-chairman at Info Edge, in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.
Swiggy is backed by the likes of South African internet conglomerate Naspers and venture capital investor SAIF Partners and Accel. It had raised $1 billion in December from Naspers, Alibaba's Chinese rival Tencent and other investors.
Delivery Hero earlier had a presence in India through Foodpanda, which it sold to ride-hailing company Ola in December 2017. Zomato, Swiggy and Foodpanda also compete with UberEats, the food-delivery of the US-based cab aggregator.
In another report, The Times of India reported that Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd is planning to sell six brands in cardiac and diabetic therapies as part of a portfolio restructuring.
The brands are Pregaba, Ranx, Tenepure, Tolol, Zulu and Gemitrol. Torrent has mandated investment bank MAPE Advisory to divest the brands, which contribute about Rs 200 crore to its annual revenue, the report said.
The planned sale has drawn early interest from Piramal Enterprises as well as private equity firms like Multiples Alternate Asset Management and ICICI Venture, the report said.