BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian food delivery firm Zomato Ltd on Friday reported a smaller-than-expected rise in its fourth-quarter revenue, weighed by a jump in strategic expenses.
The company’s consolidated revenue from operations for the quarter ended March 31 rose 69.7% to 20.56 billion rupees due to better ad monetisation and higher customer delivery charges during the quarter, it said in an exchange filing.
However, analysts on average had expected a consolidated revenue of 20.7 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Total expenses rose nearly 43% in the quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Akshant Goyal in a statement said that a shorter quarter and the company shutting down in around 225 cities, along with higher marketing spends, resulted in a fall in monthly transacting customers in the quarter.
Gross order value (GOV), the total value of all orders placed online, rose 12.23% year-on-year in its food delivery business, and its quick commerce business Blinkit saw a 17% quarter-on-quarter increase.
The company said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), excluding Blinkit, turned positive in the quarter.
Zomato’s consolidated net loss also narrowed to 1.88 billion rupees from 3.47 billion rupees a year earlier.
Zomato’s results come a day after rival Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd, known as Swiggy, said that its food delivery business turned profitable in March.
Last month, Blinkit’s operations were disrupted to ensure safety of its employees at stores and delivery partners, after it made changes to the payout structure of Blinkit delivery partners.
Shares of the company closed 1.57% higher ahead of results.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
