Zomato Narrows Loss By Nearly Half In March Quarter

The Gurugram-headquartered company cut its losses by 46% sequentially from ₹346.6 crore in the December quarter, according to its latest regulatory filing. Zomato’s operating revenue during the March quarter rose 70% from a year ago to ₹2,056 crore. The company posted ₹1,211.8 crore in revenues in January-March 2022.

On Friday, the company’s shares ended the day’s trade up 1.72% to ₹64.54 apiece on the BSE.

Zomato said that its business excluding its quick commerce unit BlinkIt, achieved adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) positive. The firm calculates adjusted Ebitda as traditional Ebitda, adding share-based payment expenses, and subtracting the rent amount paid for the period.

Profitability was primarily driven by the company’s food delivery segment, which delivered an adjusted Ebitda of ₹78 crore in the quarter. Zomato said the difference between adjusted Ebitda and net profit has narrowed significantly.

Zomato’s adjusted revenue from its food delivery vertical, which accounted for a majority of its topline, was at ₹1,530 crore, down from ₹1,565 crore in the previous quarter, primarily due to the overall slowdown in India’s food delivery segment, which also brought down its gross order value to ₹6,559 crore in Q4 from ₹6680 crore in Q3.

“The quarterly growth is low due to demand slowdown witnessed in our business from late October till the end of January. As we mentioned in our last letter, we had started seeing green shoots of recovery in the first week of February,“ Deepinder Goyal, founder and chief executive officer, Zomato, said.

Zomato’s business-to-business verticals, Hyperpure and Blinkit, posted adjusted revenues of ₹478 crore and ₹363 crore, respectively. “In food delivery we will continue with the same mindset as we look to expand adjusted Ebitda margin further," said Goyal.