Eternal

By Abinaya V and Praveen Paramasivam

Aug 20 (Reuters) - Shareholder approval for Swiggy's foreign ownership cap will let its quick-commerce unit Instamart switch to a potentially more profitable inventory model as the Indian delivery platform plays catch-up with market leader Blinkit in a highly competitive sector.

Instamart has operated under a marketplace model since launching in August 2020, earning commissions on products sold in India's $11.5 billion quick-commerce market. The approval gives Prosus-backed Swiggy SWIG.NS the status of an Indian-owned and controlled company (IOCC), required under the country's foreign investment rules to hold inventory.

"The first benefit is bulk-buying advantage. Second, they can share data analytics with their brand partners and third, wastage will be less," Anand Rathi analyst Shobit Singhal said.

MARGIN IMPROVEMENT

An inventory-led model could improve Instamart's margins, particularly in higher-value categories, while giving it greater control over pricing, assortment and supply chains, analysts said.

Swiggy has said the transition could add about 80 basis points to Instamart's contribution margin, which measures revenue after variable costs. "That's about 4-5 rupees an order — about a sixth of the 30 rupees an order it needs to break even," said Samarth Patel, associate vice president, Equirus Securities.

Instamart's first-quarter contribution margin was negative 0.2%, against negative 1.8% in the previous quarter.

Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit, which moved to an inventory-led model last year, has logged overall margin improvement for five straight quarters, turning positive in the March 2026 quarter.

The company attributed this to inventory ownership, supply-chain efficiencies and a move into higher-margin categories including electronics, home decor and gourmet foods.

Swiggy, which went public in 2024, is yet to turn profitable. Earlier this month, it set a fiscal 2031 target to turn earnings per share positive.

RISING COSTS

The shift, however, would result in higher working capital to fund purchases and manage stock, brokerage Jefferies said in a note. Eternal said last month that working capital at Blinkit was "largely driven by inventory ownership".

Swiggy and Eternal have been investing heavily in quick commerce to expand beyond groceries into higher-margin categories, jostling for consumer attention alongside deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon India AMZN.O, Walmart's WMT.N Flipkart and Reliance RELI.NS.

Smaller rival Zepto is looking to raise up to $837 million in a highly anticipated public listing this year.

These platforms operate marketplace models, limiting their ability to profit from inventory-led products and control pricing, especially in quick commerce, Akshay D'Souza, a consumer sector consultant, said.

For Swiggy, the new status is only a part of a broader route to profitability, D'Souza said, adding the company must also grow sales of higher-margin premium goods and build its private-label portfolio.

($1 = 95.7525 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Abinaya V and Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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By Arpan Chaturvedi and Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Maharashtra state's food safety chief has intensified a crackdown on the food and grocery industries, suspending the permits of 12 warehouses of Indian grocery giants Eternal ETEA.NS, Swiggy SWIG.NS and Zepto after finding cockroach infestations and other unhygienic conditions.

The latest raids targeting the "quick commerce" sector, where companies deliver groceries within minutes, come after the state's new food safety head, Tukaram Mundhe, 51, shut some of Mumbai's most popular eateries for poor hygiene.

Reports of food contamination are common in India's local eateries, and Maharashtra's drive and Mundhe are gathering social media attention because historically there has been little enforcement of food safety standards.

Earlier this week, Mundhe's department shut four Domino's DPZ.O outlets, a brand that is India's biggest fast-food chain and typically considered to have stricter safety protocols.

The state's FDA said in a statement on Friday that it had inspected 86 establishments, issued 60 "improvement notices", and suspended the permits of five warehouses of Eternal's Blinkit, five of Zepto's, and two of Swiggy's Instamart.

Swiggy and Eternal declined to comment, and Zepto did not respond to queries from Reuters.

Swiggy and Zepto have roughly 1,100 delivery outlets each in India, and Blinkit has 2,200, according to Datum Intelligence.

At one of the food storage facilities of Blinkit, India's biggest quick commerce company, according to the release from Mundhe's office on Friday, inspectors found a cockroach infestation and rotten vegetables, and inspections at other sites turned up rodent droppings and unhygienic conditions.

At a Zepto warehouse in Nashik in northwestern Maharashtra state, delivery staff were entering storage areas in street footwear, raising cross-contamination risks, the state FDA statement also said.

Other photos shared by the state FDA showed rusted and dirty storage racks, with cockroaches crawling around food items.

"We will not tolerate any playing with public health," Mundhe said in the FDA statement, warning of tougher action against unsafe food preparation and unhygienic food storage.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Dhwani Pandya; Writing by Aftab Ahmed and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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Adds details throughout

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Temasek and Eternal ETEA.NS backed e-commerce logistics services firm Shiprocket's SIPO.NS 16.2 billion rupee ($169.88 million) initial public offering was fully subscribed on the second day of bidding on Thursday, led by retail and non-institutional investors.

Here are some key details:

• The company received bids for 136 million shares as of 10:45 a.m. IST, against 94.4 million shares on offer, exchange data showed

• Retail investors bid for 84 million shares, 4.85 times the number of shares set aside for them, while the portion kept aside for non-institutional investors was subscribed 1.9 times

• Qualified institutional buyers, who are typically active on the final day of bidding, subscribed 2% of their portion

• The IPO comprises a fresh issue of 8.86 billion rupees, while the rest is an offer for sale by investors including venture capital firm Tribe Capital, LR India Fund, and co-founders Gautam Kapoor, Saahil Goel and Vishesh Khurana

• Shiprocket raised 7.27 billion rupees from anchor investors including SBI Mutual Fund, Nippon Life India Asset Management, Nomura, Goldman Sachs, and others earlier this week ahead of the public launch of the IPO

• The IPO will close for subscription on Friday, and the stock is expected to begin trading from August 19

• The firm plans to use the proceeds for marketing initiative and technology infrastructure investments, repayment of debt, and funding inorganic growth

($1 = 95.3625 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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By Bharath Rajeswaran

Aug 7 (Reuters) - India's market outlook is strengthening as bank credit growth reaches its fastest pace in more than a decade, foreign equity inflows return and central bank measures support the rupee, according to Jefferies.

"There are some positives to be aware of as regards the Indian domestic story," Christopher Wood, Jefferies' global head of equity strategy, said in his latest GREED & fear note published on Friday.

Against this backdrop, Jefferies has reshaped its India long-only portfolio. HDFC Bank HDBK.NS, India's largest private lender and the heaviest stock in benchmark indexes, is being removed alongside PolicyBazaar-owner PB Fintech PBFI.NS.

MCX MCEI.NS and Lenskart Solutions LENS.NS will replace them, while REC RECM.NS makes way for Bajaj Finance BJFN.NS. Eternal's ETEA.NS allocation rises by one percentage point, funded by a reduction in Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS.

Foreign investors bought a net $2.12 billion of domestic equities in July as India benefited from the unwind out of the memory chip trade. However, they remain net sellers for the year, with outflows totaling $25.86 billion, according to National Securities Depository.

The more important signal, Wood said, is the acceleration in domestic lending, which has climbed to 17–18% year-on-year, led by corporate lending of about 20%. Loans to agriculture and retail borrowers are also expanding at healthy rates, underscoring broad-based demand.

Policy-driven inflows are adding a macro cushion. The Reserve Bank of India's foreign-currency inflow scheme, including non-resident deposits, external commercial borrowings and foreign-currency bonds, had mobilized about $41 billion by the end of July, and Jefferies expects inflows to reach $80 billion–$100 billion by the September 30 deadline.

The removal of tax on interest income on foreign purchases of government bonds has also generated $8.7 billion in net inflows since early June, per exchange data.

"All this increases the likelihood that the rupee should stabilise," Wood said. The currency recovered to 95.17 per U.S. dollar, as of July 31, from a low of 96.96 in May.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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Adds details paragraph 2 onwards

By Kashish Tandon and Chandini Monnappa

Aug 6 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS laid out long-term growth targets on Thursday, aiming to achieve 100 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) in annual core earnings by fiscal 2031, as it aggressively expands its quick-commerce business Instamart.

The company, which has yet to turn a profit since listing in 2024, reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of 28.71 billion rupees in fiscal 2026. It expects to become profitable as it scales both its quick-commerce and food delivery businesses.

Swiggy's ambitions come as it and rival Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit race to build scale in one of India's most hotly contested consumer sectors, fending off competition from Zepto, Tata-backed BigBasket, Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart, even as investors increasingly focus on which players can sustainably turn a profit.

Swiggy's shares rose as much as 5.2% to their highest in five months after the latest update.

"There is little doubt about the growth opportunity in quick commerce, but Swiggy's targets leave little room for execution errors. Investors will be watching closely to see if it can sustain the operational discipline that has underpinned its progress so far," said Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and CIO at Fident Asset Management.

Last week, the company reported a narrower quarterly loss and improving profitability at Instamart, while outlining plans to expand the network of its dark stores, or fulfilment centres, to fuel growth.

Swiggy now expects gross order value (GOV), or the total value of goods sold before discounts, at Instamart, which delivers everything from eggs to iPhones in minutes, to grow four-to-fivefold to 1.5 trillion rupees by fiscal 2031 from 280 billion rupees in fiscal 2026.

Swiggy projects consolidated GOV to grow more than 30% annually through fiscal 2031. It also forecast food delivery core earnings of about 50 billion rupees, aided by GOV growth of 2.5 to 3.5 times.

Separately, Swiggy said its board approved raising the foreign shareholding cap to 49.5%, paving the way for Instamart to shift to a first-party inventory model within two to four quarters after shareholder approval.

The move would allow the quick-commerce business to stock and sell goods directly rather than operating solely as a marketplace, which would improve merchandising and unit economics.

($1 = 95.1575 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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July 31 (Reuters) - Walmart-owned Flipkart said on Friday it has partnered with Netflix NFLX.O to offer members of its loyalty programme a monthly mobile subscription after four qualifying orders, as it looks to encourage repeat purchases by customers.

India's e-commerce companies are increasingly using loyalty programmes to drive repeat purchases as competition intensifies across online retail and quick commerce.

Flipkart, which WalMart WMT.N bought a controlling stake in 2018, has expanded into grocery and rapid deliveries through Flipkart Minutes, competing with Amazon AMZN.O in e-commerce and rivals including Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and BigBasket in quick commerce.

Flipkart shifted its holding company to India from Singapore earlier this year, paving the way for a planned stock market listing in the country. Reuters reported in March that the company was aiming to list in Mumbai before March 2027, though it had yet to firm up the IPO's size or valuation.

Under the partnership, Flipkart Plus members who place four orders of at least 299 rupees each in a calendar month across Flipkart, Flipkart Grocery or Flipkart Minutes will receive a 30-day Netflix Mobile subscription from Aug. 1.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

(([email protected]; https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandini-monnappa-8a37b013b/;))

Adds details and background throughout

July 28 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS said on Tuesday that it has appointed Nandita Sinha as its quick commerce arm Instamart's chief executive, effective August 3, after Amitesh Kumar Jha resigned.

The leadership rejig comes as competition intensifies in India's quick commerce sector, where companies are racing to expand dark store networks, improve delivery speeds, and capture the rapidly evolving $11.5-billion market.

Sinha is the former CEO of Indian fashion e-commerce firm Myntra and brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across companies such as Flipkart, Britannia BRIT.NS and Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS.

Swiggy's investors have raised concerns about the slowing growth in Instamart and intensifying competition from Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit and IPO-bound Zepto.

Amazon AMZN.O and Walmart's WMT.O IPO-bound Flipkart have also been speeding up expansion of their quick commerce businesses in India, with a focus on smaller cities, as the global giants compete in a sector dominated by domestic players.

Swiggy is set to report its first-quarter earnings on Thursday.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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** Online food delivery platforms Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS shares fall 3% and 5.2%, respectively

** Drop after Moneycontrol reports that Walmart WMT.O-owned Flipkart plans to enter India's online food-delivery market in the coming weeks, signaling intensifying competition in the sector

** Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy tells Moneycontrol the launch begins at a limited scale before a broader rollout, mirroring the company's approach with quick-commerce unit Flipkart Minutes

** The prospect of another well-funded competitor could raise concerns over pricing, customer-acquisition spending and margin pressure across the sector

** Separately, Swiggy approves a proposal to cap total foreign ownership at 49.5%, which shareholders will consider at its August 18 annual general meeting; foreign ownership in firm stands at 49.76%

** UBS says proposed cap leaves little room for further foreign investment

** Swiggy is down 10.3% this week, Eternal down 2.7%

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Updates to add graphic.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, July 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Nestlé NESN.S is at a crossroads in one of its most important markets. The $268 billion KitKat maker's India arm posted a 48% jump in its net profit for the three months ending June, fuelled by strong demand across cities and rural areas. But selling to more price-sensitive shoppers could come with future costs.

A 25% increase in sales powered Nestlé India's NEST.NS first quarter earnings. The unit is also increasingly profitable with its EBITDA margin rising to 24%, a more than two percentage point increase from the same period last year. Its Mumbai-listed shares rose as much as 3.5% after it published its results on Wednesday.

CEO Manish Tiwary said the gains came from selling to a wider group of customers. That's a sign that Nestlé's push into India's hinterland, launched in 2019, is paying off as it entices aspirational consumers to its Maggi brand of instant noodles and converts tea drinkers to its Nescafe coffee. During that period, its reach has tripled to 216,000 villages.

That push has also translated into market share gains in areas like chocolate. India's booming instant delivery apps, run by Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS, turned out to be a net positive for Nestlé's packaged goods. This was helped by a 40% increase in promotional spending during the quarter and the ability to tailor the display of its products on these apps' virtual shelves.

Nestlé India's momentum mirrors a broader recovery at its parent. Under new boss Philipp Navratil, Nestlé sales grew 3.5% in the first quarter of 2026 and the Nespresso maker is also expanding its valuation premium over rivals like Unilever ULVR.L and Reckitt Benckiser RKT.L. India contributes roughly 2% to the Swiss behemoth's annual sales.

For now, Nestlé's push into the Indian countryside looks smart. For over a year, demand from India's rural shoppers has outpaced their urban counterparts. That's been fuelled by a combination of cash transfers to households by regional governments, benign inflation and a strong monsoon season that boosted farm incomes last year.

Yet risks for the local unit loom. Its sales have been partly boosted by New Delhi's cuts to indirect taxes in September, a tailwind that could fade later this year, says Abhishek Mathur, lead analyst for India institutional equities at brokerage Systematix. Higher advertising spending and rising costs could eventually squeeze margins too, if growth slows.

Rural shoppers also tend to be more vulnerable to climate crises and price shocks. Nestlé has historically skewed towards wealthy city dwellers shielded it from those vagaries, which is reflected in its valuation: its Indian unit trades at 68 times its future earnings, higher than 43 times for Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS, which reaches nine out of 10 Indian households. That suggests reaching the widest pool of Indian customers comes with its own risks.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Nestlé India on July 22 reported a 48% jump in consolidated net profit for the three months ended June 30 to 9.59 billion rupees ($99.35 million). Sales of products increased 25% from the same period last year to 63.6 billion rupees.

(Editing by Aimee Donnellan; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

July 22 (Reuters) - Eternal Ltd ETEA.NS:

• ETERNAL Q1 CONSOL NET PROFIT 920 MILLION RUPEES; IBES EST. 2.58 BILLION RUPEES

• ETERNAL Q1 CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 202.11 BILLION RUPEES; IBES EST. 204.39 BILLION RUPEES

• ETERNAL LTD - ENTERING OF A BUSINESS TRANSFER AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND CARTHERO TECHNOLOGIES

• ETERNAL LTD - DEAL FOR 350 MILLION RUPEES

Further company coverage: ETEA.NS

(([email protected];))

** Eternal's ETEA.NS stock up 11.5% so far this week, on track for biggest weekly gain since week ended July 25, 2025

** Nifty 50 .NSEI up about 1% this week so far

** Brokerages optimistic on e-commerce firm's growth in face of heightened competition from Flipkart, Amazon AMZN.O

** BofA Securities, in July 1 note, expects number of orders to rise 17% q/q, led by store addition, normal seasonality

** Citi, in July 2 note, expects strong growth across co's food delivery, quick commerce

** Stock trades at forward 12-month PE of 115.3 vs industry median of 19.04

** 29 out of 32 brokerages rate stock "buy" or higher; median PT 355 rupees - LSEG-compiled data

** YTD, stock up 1.64% vs 7.03% .NSEI fall

(Reporting by Saikeerthi in Bengaluru)

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By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, June 24 (Reuters) - Walmart's WMT.O Flipkart is speeding up expansion of its "quick commerce" business in India, with plans to add 500 more neighbourhood warehouses across the country with a focus on smaller cities as it competes in the fast-growing $11 billion sector.

The push comes just as Flipkart, which competes with Amazon in e-commerce, is preparing for its Mumbai listing, though a timeline is not yet fixed.

Flipkart was a late entrant to the quick commerce space that has boomed in India and sees companies home delivering everything from iPhones to chocolates to milk within 10-30 minutes from neighbourhood warehouses - a phenomenon that has reshaped shopping patterns in the world's most populous nation.

While Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit has over 2,200 stores in India, and Swiggy's SWIG.NS Instamart has more than 1,100, according to data from Datum Intelligence, Flipkart on Tuesday said its store count has touched 1,000, but it plans to take it to 1,500 within months.

The company is focusing more on smaller towns and cities, with 70% of its 130 plus city footprint coming from those areas, Kunal Gupta, head of Flipkart quick commerce service "Minutes", said in an interview.

People in smaller cities "build a slightly larger" average order value basket as they are value conscious, Gupta added, saying it has expanded aggressively in the eastern state of Bihar - one of the nation's poorest regions.

FIVE VARIETIES OF AVOCADOS

E-commerce is a popular shopping medium in India, but quick commerce is fast catching up. However, India's government in January ordered companies to stop promoting their grocery deliveries as a "10-minute" service amid rider safety concerns.

While Flipkart didn't disclose numbers, it said in a press statement its orders have grown five times in the past one year, with smaller towns and cities recording 42 times higher sales.

In Bengaluru, Flipkart's offerings now extend to five types of avocado to cater to evolving urban tastes, while in smaller cities the focus remains on staples and essentials, Gupta said.

Datum Intelligence data showed Blinkit was already servicing 3 million orders per day and Swiggy was doing 1.25 million, with Flipkart lagging with 820,000 daily orders.

The average order value of Flipkart service was however highest at 700 rupees ($7.39), the data added.

Datum's founder Satish Meena said it would be difficult for Flipkart to take share from Blinkit, where customers look for convenience and are from high income households.

($1 = 94.7350 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; Editing by Aditya Kalra, Alexandra Hudson)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, June 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's Zepto has disrupted the distribution edge held by fast-moving consumer goods companies including Unilever ULVR.L and Nestle NESN.S, and amped up competition for the country's food delivery duopoly. Yet the startup's rush to debut in Mumbai as soon as July at a time when local equity markets are battered reveals its financial desperation: losses are deepening and venture capital funding is increasingly hard to come by. Accepting a valuation markdown will be the price of its admission into public markets.

The 5-year-old company founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra aims to raise just shy of $1 billion to fund its mission of speedily delivering daily essentials and groceries to customers' doorsteps. There's plenty of demand for its services that boast a 12-minute median delivery time: Zepto's revenue grew 103% from the previous year to 226 billion rupees ($2.39 billion) in the 12 months to the end of March 2026.

Yet losses are mounting as it shovels money into expanding its dark store network and acquiring customers. Zepto's net loss widened 26% to 59 billion rupees for the full financial year. It lacks a profitable core business to cushion its bottom line, unlike food delivery companies $7 billion Prosus-backed PRX.AS Swiggy SWIG.NS and rival Zomato. Nor does it have a rich parent like Tata group, owner of grocer BigBasket, which is also vying to provide instant gratification to affluent Indians.

The biggest problem is Zepto's emptying war chest. Take the company's total cash balance of 56.80 billion rupees ($600 million) at end of March, strip out lease liabilities of 27.1 billion rupees and net cash shrinks to 29.7 billion rupees, implying enough to sustain just three quarters of operating activities or as little as five months using a more conservative calculation of its liquidity.

The market won't support a rich valuation, warns Satish Meena, founder of e-commerce consultancy Datum Intelligence, especially with two stronger listed rivals. Swiggy, whose stock languishes 34% below its 2024 IPO price, trades at 2.5 times this year's estimated sales, per LSEG. On that multiple Zepto would be worth $5.9 billion, less than the $7 billion valuation it achieved in its October funding round and well short of the up to $10 billion touted in local media. About half the workforce leaves Zepto every year; executives can only hope any new investors it attracts stick around for longer.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India's Zepto is selling new shares worth up to 80.1 billion rupees ($837 million) in its initial public offering, the quick commerce company's prospectus published on June 8 showed. Existing investors including ​Nexus Ventures and Contrary ZEP Holdings will sell up to 113.5 million shares in the offering.

Zepto plans to use proceeds from the IPO to expand its network of dark stores, invest in technology and cloud infrastructure as well as ​to fund acquisitions. The firm was valued at $7 billion in October, when it raised $450 million.

Zepto is targeting a July listing, the Economic Times reported on June 9, citing people aware of the matter.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

June 10 (Reuters) - Eternal Ltd ETEA.NS:

• ETERNAL - RECEIVES TAX DEMAND ORDER OF 64.9 MILLION RUPEES FOR APRIL 2023-MARCH 2024

• ETERNAL - GETS TAX ORDER WITH INTEREST PAYMENT OF 25 MILLION RUPEES, PENALTY OF 6.5 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSE89hC9y

Further company coverage: ETEA.NS

(([email protected];;))

May 11 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian food delivery major Swiggy SWIG.NS fell as much as 6.8% on Monday, as slowing growth in its quick-commerce business and intensifying competition overshadowed a narrower fourth-quarter loss and robust growth in food delivery.

Analysts said investor concerns centred on Swiggy losing quick-commerce market share to rival Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit, while competition from players such as Zepto, Amazon and Flipkart remains intense.

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

(([email protected] | X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_ |;))

Updates with details throughout

By Urvi Dugar and Devika Madhusudhanan Nair

May 8 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS on Friday reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss as its core food delivery business posted its strongest growth in nearly four years, driven by a sharp rise in orders and users as the firm focuses on affordability to sustain demand.

Food delivery is "defying scepticism around a sector slowdown, with meaningfully better margins than a year ago," CEO Sriharsha Majety said, citing how the segment has crossed 10 billion rupees ($105.84 million) in annual adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

Swiggy said affordability would be the biggest driver of growth in its food delivery business, helped by offerings such as its 99-Store and affordable restaurant marketplace Toing.

Rival Eternal ETEA.NS, which reported results last month, also said curated offerings and meals priced under 250 rupees led to the growth of its food delivery business during the quarter.

RISING ORDERS

Gross order value in food delivery, a key industry metric reflecting the total value of app orders and subscription fees, rose about 23% to 90.05 billion rupees.

Quick commerce arm Instamart posted a 68.8% jump in gross order value to 78.81 billion rupees, with contribution margin-revenue remaining after variable costs- improving 65 basis points sequentially to negative 1.8%.

India's fast‑growing quick‑commerce sector has become an $11.5 billion market within five years, changing how Indians shop with apps allowing groceries and electronics to be home delivered within minutes.

The crowded space pits Swiggy against Eternal, global players like Amazon < AMZN.O > and Walmart < WMT.O >-backed Flipkart and local rivals such as Reliance < RELI.NS >, and Zepto.

"By actively pivoting away from unprofitable low average order value (AOV) consumers and related orders, we have significantly changed the order mix by halving their share during this period," the company said.

The company's consolidated loss narrowed by about a quarter to 8 billion rupees for the March quarter while revenue from operations rose nearly 4% for the same period.

($1 = 94.4800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar and Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Writing by Abinaya V; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

(([email protected]; +91 9558725583;))

** Eternal ETEA.NS rises as much as 4.9% to 265.40 rupees; set to snap four sessions of losses

** Q4 margins for co's core food delivery and quick-commerce business improve as concerns over growth slowdown pause despite elevated competition

** Despite fears Iran war-driven fuel shock could hit delivery volumes, co says margins should remain intact unless fuel prices spike sharply

** Co sets targets of $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA from its consumer businesses by FY29, which Nomura believes is achievable through disciplined execution, focus on profitability

** Blinkit's growth slowed as order frequency, ticket sizes fell even as margins held; co sees segment to grow more than 60% annually

** Stock rated "buy" on avg; median PT is 360 rupees, per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, ETEA down 9.4%

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

** Shares of India's Eternal ETEA.NS fall 1.6% to 251.15 rupees ahead of fourth quarter results

** Analysts on an average expect revenue to rise 3x y/y to 182.81 billion rupees ($1.94 billion) - data compiled by LSEG

** HDFC Securities expects food delivery and quick commerce businesses to clock a 18% and 100% y/y growth, respectively

** Jefferies sees Blinkit' s net order value to grow - a key metric to track underlying demand - in the low double digits, with EBITDA continuing to improve quarter on quarter

** Recent LPG shortages have led to menu limits, but volumes are largely unaffected so far; however, margins could come under pressure from higher fulfilment costs - Institutional research

** ETEA rated "buy" on average by 31 analysts, median PT at 370 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD stock down 11.34%

($1 = 94.4200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru)

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By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) - India's biggest food delivery app Zomato has agreed to drop a contract term that penalized restaurants for offering cheaper meals to walk-in diners, a company source said, after opposition from eateries who said the policy undermined their pricing decisions.

Eternal's ETEA.NS Zomato app has 24 million consumers and 300,000 listed restaurants. As demand for food delivery boomed, Eternal shares have more than doubled since their 2021 listing and the company is valued at nearly $26 billion.

For years, Zomato has had a "charges for price disparity" clause in its contracts, which allowed it to fine restaurants if their eat-in or their own delivery prices were lower than those listed on the Zomato app. Zomato's contracts also stated that it could use mystery shopping, or secretive restaurant visits, among other tactics to check that outlets were not undercutting the app in price, according to contracts seen by Reuters.

The clause was never enforced but has been dropped now, a Zomato source said on Thursday, without explaining the rationale for the decision.

Reuters is first to report Zomato's decision, as a review of publicly available Zomato policy for restaurants also showed the clause has been dropped.

Zomato did not respond to Reuters queries.

With players like Domino's DPZ.O and KFC 3420.T competing with millions of restaurants in India, the country's $94 billion food services market is set to be worth $153 billion by 2031, Mordor Intelligence estimates.

ANTITRUST RISK OF CLAUSE

According to Zomato's contracts, it would charge a fine equal to "three times the differential amount" per order. This was opposed by the National Restaurant Association of India as it restricted their pricing ability, said Sagar J. Daryani, president of the group that represents over 500,000 outlets.

"It’s our product and should be our pricing. We appreciate their assurance that price parity will no longer be enforced," Daryani told Reuters.

Five lawyers and one former Indian antitrust official who reviewed the clause in the Zomato agreement said it was prone to hurt competition and could have faced scrutiny from regulators.

They referred to how a complaint by a hotels body led to a 2022 decision by India's antitrust watchdog which asked travel booking websites MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo to remove clauses that prohibited hotels from offering lower rates to other agents.

"The clause has resemblance to those found to be in violation in India hotel booking business ... though similar clauses have faced scrutiny world over, the company would have needed to provide an objective justification to defend it," said Rahul Goel, antitrust partner at India's AnantLaw.

An Indian antitrust investigation in 2024 also found Zomato and rival Swiggy breached competition laws with their business practices favouring select restaurants, Reuters has reported. The companies deny any wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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By Kritika Lamba, Aditya Kalra and Chandini Monnappa

BENGALURU/NEW DELHI, April 17 (Reuters) - Walmart-owned WMT.O Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart plans to sell movie and concert tickets in India, moving into a fast-growing space driven by consumers spending more on entertainment, two sources familiar with the matter said.

India's live events and ticketing market has gathered pace over the last year, as demand for large-scale concerts, international tours and sporting spectacles surges, drawing tens of thousands of fans across major cities, led by the country's lucrative cricket calendar.

One of the sources said Flipkart was aiming to launch into the market in May, pitting it against Accel-backed BookMyShow and Zomato's ETEA.NS District to take advantage of rising disposable incomes and wider smartphone use in the world's most populous nation.

Flipkart is also preparing to pilot food delivery from May, the second source said, adding that timelines could change as plans evolve.

The company did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Flipkart has been laying the groundwork for an initial public offering in India, including shifting its holding company back to the country, reshuffling senior management and strengthening business units such as fashion arm Myntra.

India's online ticketing and food delivery leaders have scaled up through heavy spending and deep discounts. Flipkart's plans would take it into fiercely competitive, low-margin sectors dominated by entrenched rivals.

Years of investor-funded expansion have left India's food delivery market dominated by Zomato and Swiggy, with smaller rivals squeezed out and profitability still elusive despite strong urban demand.

Founded in 2007 as an online bookseller, Flipkart competes with Amazon AMZN.O in India's growing e-commerce market. It was valued at about $37 billion in 2024, when Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google bought a $350 million stake, following Walmart's $16 billion controlling acquisition six years earlier.

(Reporting by Kritika Lamba, Aditya Kalra and Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Elaine Hardcastle)

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** Eternal ETEA.NS rises ~4.4%, peer Swiggy SWIG.NS gains as much as 5% in broad market rally on hopes Iran war could end soon

** ETEA, SWIG lost 7.03% and 13.82%, respectively, in March on concerns over LPG shortages, elevated crude prices due to Iran war

** HDFC Securities upgrades ETEA to "buy" from "add", raises FY27, FY2028 profit estimates

** Says volume impact due to LPG shortages remains minimal

** Adds minimum orders for discounted sales raised, aiding profitability; says Blinkit's execution, market share gains likely to improve

** Reiterates "buy" on SWIG; calls it a steal after recent drop

** YTD, ETEA sheds 14%, SWIG slips 31%; Nifty 50 .NSEI falls 12.5%

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

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** Shares of Eternal ETEA.NS jump about 8% this week, snaps four-week losing streak

** Gains driven by a three-day rebound earlier in the week, supported by improving market sentiment and value buying

** Online delivery services firm's stock rose 1.51% to 232.19 rupees on Friday, Nifty 50 .NSEI up 0.34%

** Broader Indian markets rebound following a sharp selloff in the previous session when ETEA lost nearly 6%

** ETEA rose 5.7% on Tuesday, its biggest single-day pct gain since July 22, 2025, after JM Financial said recent correction may be overstated and quick delivery service unit Blinkit continues to drive growth

** YTD, stock down nearly 18% vs .NSEI drop of about 11%

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru)

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** Shares of India's Eternal ETEA.NS jump 5.8% to 234.92 rupees

** Extend gains after snapping an 18-session losing streak on Monday, the longest such streak since listing in July 2021

** JM Financial maintains "buy" and says recent correction driven by competition and macro concerns may be overstated

** Brokerage says Eternal's quick commerce platform Blinkit is driving growth with improving margins, while food delivery remains resilient despite competitive intensity

** Stock rated "buy" on avg by 31 analysts, median PT at 380 rupees -- data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, stock down ~20%

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru)

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By Praveen Paramasivam

CHENNAI, March 12 (Reuters) - Indian households are rushing to buy electric induction stoves, draining stocks online and in stores, amid fears of a potential cooking gas shortage tied to the Middle East conflict.

India, the world's ​second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), has invoked emergency powers to boost supplies for households even as availability tightens for commercial users including canteens, hostels and restaurants.

Meanwhile, consumers are buying electric cooking appliances as a precaution, with some households worried about refill delays and higher prices.

Checks by Reuters on Thursday showed several induction stove models were unavailable on Amazon AMZN.O, Walmart-backed WMT.O Flipkart, Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit and Zepto, while some offline chains said fresh supplies were still days away.

Induction stove sales on Amazon India have jumped more than 30-fold, while rice cookers and electric pressure cookers are up fourfold, a company spokesperson said.

Kitchen appliances maker TTK Prestige TTKL.NS said demand for induction stoves had surged far beyond supply.

"There is a threefold surge (in demand)," CEO Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan told Reuters.

The company has raised its production capacity to 100% from about 70% before the start of the war, and increased staffing by roughly 15%. It also plans to raise prices of induction stoves in the June quarter to offset any higher costs.

Induction stoves accounted for about a tenth of TTK's 25.30 billion rupees ($274.52 million) standalone revenue in 2024–25.

Online shopping platforms also showed models from Butterfly CROP.NS, Havells India HVEL.NS and Bajaj Electricals BJEL.NS marked as "currently unavailable".

Google Trends showed search interest for induction stoves hit a record high on March 12, while some restaurant chains, including Wow Momo and California Burrito, said they were exploring induction stoves as a contingency plan.

Anand Rathi analyst Manish Valecha said large kitchen appliance makers with domestic assembly and strong distribution, including TTK Prestige, Butterfly and Stove Kraft STOE.NS, are best placed to benefit from the surge in induction cooktop demand. But reliance on imported components could pose supply risks if the spike persists, he added.

TTK Prestige will switch from sea shipments to airlifting components sourced from China and Southeast Asia, absorbing higher costs to ensure supplies if disruptions persist, Vijayaraghavan said.

The Middle East conflict has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf, raising costs and tightening oil and gas supplies from the Middle East. O/R

On Thursday, the Suezmax tanker Shenlong reached Mumbai with Saudi crude, becoming the first crude carrier to arrive in India from the Middle East since the war between Iran and the United States and Israel erupted in late February, LSEG data showed.

($1 = 92.1625 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Leroy Leo)

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Feb 17 (Reuters) - Eternal Ltd ETEA.NS:

• ETERNAL LIMITED AND OPENAI ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC COLLABORATION TO ADVANCE AI CAPABILITIES ACROSS ETERNAL'S BUSINESSES

Further company coverage: ETEA.NS

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By Chandini Monnappa and Praveen Paramasivam

MUMBAI, Feb 16 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS retail unit is piloting a search-and-discovery platform in a bid to more closely integrate its store and online shopping experiences, a top executive said on Monday.

Reliance Retail is the country's largest retailer, operating 19,340 stores nationwide and selling everything from electronics and apparel to groceries to more than 349 million customers.

The company is piloting the platform at its apparel stores such as Trends and Yousta, and plans to roll it out at its retail chain Smart Bazaar later this year, said Damodar Mall, chief executive officer of Grocery Retail at Reliance Retail.

Customers can scan a QR code at stores to use the platform, which then helps them discover and search for products tailored to their preferences, Mall said on the sidelines of the Retail Leadership Summit in Mumbai.

He did not disclose an investment amount or other operational details for the new platform.

India's retail sector faces intensifying competition from online shopping platforms such as Amazon's AMZN.O India unit and Walmart WMT.N-backed Flipkart, while quick commerce firms such as Swiggy's SWIG.NS Instamart, Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit and Zepto have been eating up market share rapidly.

Reliance's online grocery delivery service JioMart expanded to compete in the 10-minute delivery segment in 2025.

Festive discounting, investment in hyperlocal delivery and a one-off impact from India's new labour code trimmed core margins at the retail business to 8% in the third quarter from 8.6% a year earlier.

The pace of change in India's retail sector remains intense, Mall said, though it is unfolding against the backdrop of a still-expanding consumption market, which allows room for shifts in market share without constraining overall growth, he added.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Praveen Paramasivam in Mumbai; Writing by Surbhi Misra and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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Feb 6 (Reuters) - Eternal Ltd ETEA.NS:

• ETERNAL LTD - ZOMATO NETHERLANDS B.V HAS BEEN DISSOLVED

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SA5RA

Further company coverage: ETEA.NS

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Feb 5 (Reuters) - Eternal Ltd ETEA.NS:

• RECEIVES GST DEMAND INCLUDING INTEREST, PENALTY 17.5 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nNSE4VyCWh

Further company coverage: ETEA.NS

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** Shares of India's Eternal ETEA.NS jump 4.6% to 285.15 rupees

** Jefferies adds Eternal to its model portfolio, citing a major boost to investor sentiment following the U.S.–India trade deal

** U.S. President Donald Trump announced a trade deal that cuts tariffs on Indian exports to the U.S. to 18% from an effective 50%

** Jefferies says deal addresses key overhang for foreign investors, with India underweight positioning among emerging-market funds and $34 bln in FPI outflows over the past 16 months

** Brokerage says improved trade visibility could support the rupee and act as a positive trigger for FPI flows

** Jefferies replaces Godrej Consumer Products GOCP.NS with Eternal, citing strong growth and margin improvement across quick commerce and food delivery

** ETEA closed flat in 2025, stock down ~2% so far in 2026

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru)

(([email protected] | X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_ |;))

Corrects dateline

Jan 29 (Reuters) - India's Swiggy SWIG.NS reported a narrower third‑quarter loss sequentially, as strong demand in its quick‑commerce arm Instamart partly offset the drag from continued high investments.

The company reported a consolidated loss of 10.65 billion Indian rupees ($115.8 million) for the quarter ended December 31, compared to 10.92 billion rupees in the second quarter.

Losses, however, remained higher than the 7.99 billion rupees recorded a year earlier.

($1 = 91.9590 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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