Swiggy

** Shares of India's Swiggy SWIG.NS rise 4.3% to 281.59 rupees

** India's Hindustan Petroleum Corporation HPCL.NS also rises 2% to 402.4 rupees

** Food delivery co and refiner said on Wednesday they would partner to launch doorstep delivery of cooking gas cylinders via Swiggy's quick commerce platform, Instamart

** SWIG on avg rated "buy" by 28 analysts (median PT 360 rupees); HPCL on avg rated "hold" by 31 analysts (median PT 398 rupees) - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD - SWIG down 27%, HPCL down 19.4%

(Reporting by Abhirami G in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

July 15 (Reuters) - Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL.NS:

• SWIGGY'S INSTAMART LAUNCHES LPG CYLINDER DELIVERY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HPCL - STATEMENT

Further company coverage: HPCL.NS

(([email protected];))

July 10 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• RECEIVED A PROHIBITION ORDER FROM THE FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS AUTHORITY OF INDIA

• RECEIVED MODIFIED FSSAI LICENCE ON JULY 09, 2026

• NO MAJOR FINANCIAL IMPACT ON OVERALL OPERATIONS FINANCIAL POSITION OF CO

• NO MONETARY PENALTY HAS BEEN IMPOSED

• PROHIBITION ORDER FROM FSSAI IN RELATION TO CO’S FOOD ORDERING AND DELIVERY PLATFORM APPLICATION “TOING”

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

July 7 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• SWIGGY - AGGREGATE FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN SWIGGY AT 49.76% AS OF JULY 06, 2026

• SWIGGY - SAID FOREIGN INVESTMENT DOES NOT RESULT IN ANY CHANGE TO OWNERSHIP OR CONTROL STATUS OF CO

Source text: ID:nBSEc4cXl2

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

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)

(([email protected];))

BANGALORE, June 16 - Indian online grocery retailer Bigbasket on Tuesday appointed Amit Nanda as its CEO, replacing co-founder Hari Menon, who will continue to serve on the board.

Here are some details:

• Nanda will join the Tata-backed grocery giant after more than 11 years at Amazon India, where he held several leadership roles.

• Bigbasket said Nanda will lead its next phase of growth, including strengthening its position in quick commerce.

• Earlier this month, the company appointed insider Seshu Kumar Tirumala as its Chief Operating Officer.

• The move comes as India's fast-growing quick-commerce sector has become an $11.5 billion market within five years, with players such as Swiggy's Instamart SWIG.NS, Eternal's Blinkit ETEA.NS, Amazon's Now AMZN.O, Walmart WMT.O-backed Flipkart's Minutes, Reliance's JioMart RELI.NS and Zepto.

• Last year, Bigbasket said it planned to roll out its 10-minute food delivery services nationwide by the end of fiscal 2026.

(Reporting by Abinaya V in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)

May 21 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• RESOLUTION FOR ALTERATION OF ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION FELL SHORT OF REQUIRED THRESHOLD BY 2.65%

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];;))

May 13 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• SWIGGY - CLARIFIES ON PROPOSED AMENDMENT FOR ALTERATION OF ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OF CO

• SWIGGY - PROPOSED AMENDMENT FORMS PART OF BROADER ENDEAVOUR TO BECOME INDIAN OWNED, CONTROLLED CO

• SWIGGY - PROPOSED AMENDMENTS DO NOT, BY THEMSELVES, RESULT IN CO BEING CLASSIFIED AS AN IOCC

• SWIGGY-IMPORTANT TO PUT IN PLACE GOVERNANCE TO BECOME IOCC THROUGH DOMESTICALLY CONTROLLED BOARD, MAJORITY DOMESTIC SHAREHOLDING

Source text: ID:nNSEFjwSB

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

Adds details throughout

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

The stock was on track for its biggest intraday percentage drop since April 2.

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 AMZN.O and Walmart-backed Flipkart WMT.O remains intense, analysts said.

On Friday, Swiggy reported a consolidated loss of 8 billion rupees ($84.3 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with 10.65 billion rupees in the previous quarter.

JPMorgan said growth at Swiggy's quick commerce arm Instamart lagged peers, with gross order value rising 68.8%, well below Blinkit's 95.4% increase, suggesting continued market-share losses.

Morgan Stanley said while Swiggy's food delivery business recorded its strongest growth in years and margins improved, investor focus remains on execution and profitability in quick commerce amid aggressive competition.

($1 = 94.9500 Indian rupees)

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

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

April 28 (Reuters) - Indian online delivery firm EternalETEA.NS reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by continued growth in its quick-commerce unit Blinkit and steady expansion in its core food delivery business.

The Gurugram-based company, which also operates food delivery unit Zomato, posted a consolidated net profit of 1.74 billion rupees ($18.40 million)for the quarter ended March 31, above analysts estimates of 1.21 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.

($1 = 94.5450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru)

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

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)

((Email: [email protected]; X: @adityakalra;))

** 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)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

By Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU, March 26 (Reuters) - Indian corporate insurance startup Plum said on Thursday it has raised 1.93 billion rupees ($20.6 million) as part of its Series B funding round led by Peak XV Partners, valuing the company at 11.81 billion rupees, according to CEO Abhishek Poddar.

GMO Venture Partners and existing investor Tanglin Venture Partners also participated in the round.

The Bengaluru-based company plans to use the fresh capital to scale marketing and sales efforts to expand its presence in India's corporate insurance market, deepen technology investments - particularly in AI-driven claims operations - and expand into preventive and primary healthcare, Poddar said.

Until last year, Plum generated its revenue purely from insurance broking. Its newer healthcare vertical, however, is soon expected to account for a larger share of its revenue mix.

"If I look at the revenue distribution, 80% insurance and 20% healthcare. Very quickly, healthcare has become significant for us, and it's growing in triple digits," Poddar said.

"Our prediction is that healthcare within our corporate business would be roughly 40% to 45% within the next couple of years."

The company is already seeing substantial efficiency gains from AI, especially in claims-processing, which forms the bulk of its operations, Poddar added.

"In the last four years, our claims volume has grown by around 50 times. We have been able to scale by 50 times with a team that would have grown by two times. That's the kind of scale advantage and efficiency advantage that you can generate using AI," he said.

Plum, backed by Tiger Global, counts Meesho MEES.NS, PhonePe PHOP.NS, Swiggy SWIG.NS, Urban Company URBN.NS and Zomato ETEA.NS among its clients.

($1 = 93.8860 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

(([email protected]))

By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI, March 17 (Reuters) - An Indian parliamentary panel has recommended mandatory registration of gig workers on a national labour database, while calling for clearer legal obligations for digital platforms to contribute to their social security.

The Standing Committee on Labour said in a report on Tuesday that gig workers on digital platforms had become an "integral part of the modern supply chain," particularly in cities delivering food, transport and other on-demand services, but many remained outside formal labour registration and social security systems.

To bridge the gap, the committee has recommended that all platform aggregators, such as Swiggy SWIG.NS, Ola OLAE.NS and Zomato, must register gig workers on the government's e-Shram portal, a national database for unorganised workers.

Engagement of such workers should be linked to this registration, the panel said.

The recommendations come as India's gig economy expands rapidly, with millions working on app-based platforms in sectors such as ride-hailing, logistics and food delivery.

The Indian government announced in November last year the implementation of four labour codes, overhauling decades-old rules governing factories and workers while promising social security benefits for gig and platform workers.

These benefits have not been implemented so far.

There are no official estimates for the size of India's gig economy, although government think tank NITI Aayog expects the sector to employ 23.5 million people, or about 7% of the non-farm workforce, by 2030.

The committee also proposed that registration remain valid for at least one year, with gig workers continuing to receive basic social security benefits, including insurance and accident cover, even if they stop working with a particular aggregator.

It also urged the government to include clearer provisions for gig and platform workers in labour codes, defining aggregator responsibilities and ensuring contributions to social security schemes.

The report further called for stronger social security coverage for workers in non-traditional employment arrangements as India's digital economy evolves.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

(([email protected]; +919810286200; Twitter:@manojgulnar;))

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

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, Feb 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Is quick commerce a viable business? India's $9.3 billion Swiggy SWIG.NS, backed by Prosus PRX.AS and SoftBank's Vision Fund, which offers deliveries of everything from onions to Bluetooth speakers in as little as 10 minutes, is under pressure to stem losses at its Instamart unit without sacrificing growth. But rivals are stepping up discounts to grab market share. As long as that persists, Swiggy and others may find both profit and growth elusive in the sector.

The $11.5 billion sector's common refrain is that companies have to sacrifice near-term profits to acquire users and scale. In the three months to December, Swiggy's quick commerce revenue jumped to 10.2 billion Indian rupees ($112.05 million), up a blistering 76% year-on-year; rival Eternal's ETEA.NS Blinkit surged nearly ninefold over the same period. Most of that growth is underpinned by heavy discounts to lure shoppers, better product mix as well as building out warehouses known as dark stores that serve as distribution centres.

But Swiggy boss Sriharsha Majety has set a goal for the business to achieve a key profitability metric it calls "contribution margin breakeven" - when revenue from each order covers its direct fulfilment costs - in the quarter ending June. Currently, revenue per order is 99 rupees ($1.09) and direct cost per order including discounts is 118 rupees ($1.30), according to calculations from Bernstein. In theory, cutting back on discounts will help, as will charging higher commissions from suppliers.

The problem is, competition from Walmart's WMT.O Flipkart, Blinkit and Zepto, which is readying an initial public offering, is intensifying, leaving Swiggy with little room to manoeuvre. Grocery sales, a category seen as most likely to secure repeat customers, account for a falling share of its overall gross order value. This stood at 68% as of December, down from 84% in March. Average monthly orders per Instamart user have fallen to 2.8 in the recent quarter, compared to 3.5 a year ago, according to Bernstein, although the average order value has increased 40%.

Scaling back on spending risks eroding Swiggy's market share or worse. Blinkit, for instance, has refrained from discounts and managed to squeeze out an adjusted EBITDA in the latest quarter. But that's probably unsustainable, as the business is forecast to be back in the red in three months to March, per analyst forecasts on Visible Alpha. Swiggy's quest for sustainable earnings in quick commerce may end in futility.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India’s Swiggy on January 29 posted a consolidated loss of 10.65 billion Indian rupees for the quarter ended December 31, compared with 10.92 billion rupees in the previous quarter. Losses remained wider than the 7.99 billion rupees it reported a year earlier.

The company said it is confident of achieving contribution-margin break-even - when revenue from each order covers its direct fulfilment costs - by June. The contribution margin for its quick commerce arm stood at negative 2.5%.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

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)

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

By Manoj Kumar and Shubham Batra

NEW DELHI, Feb 11 (Reuters) - India plans to revise the base year of key economic indicators, including consumer price index, gross domestic product and industrial output, every three to five years to better capture structural changes in the economy, a top official said on Wednesday.

A regular revision cycle will improve "user confidence by making the statistical system more responsive to economic change," said Saurabh Garg, Secretary at the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which releases retail inflation, GDP and industrial output data.

MoSPI plans to revise the GDP base year every five years and conduct the next household consumption survey after a three-year gap, Garg added.

The government is updating the base year for CPI data after more than a decade. The new series, based on the 2023/24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, is due to be released on Thursday.

The revised CPI basket expands to 358 weighted items from 299, with higher coverage of services and modern consumption, while adding rural house rent for the first time.

It will reflect shifts in spending patterns across food, housing and services, and will include back data and a linking factor to ensure continuity with the previous series, Garg said.

India's annual retail inflation likely rose for a third straight month to 2.4% in January, according to a Reuters poll of economists, as firming food prices and higher gold and silver costs coincided with fading favourable base effects.

Food's share in household spending has declined, with recent surveys showing it accounts for 39.7% of urban expenditure, down from about 43% in 2011-12. In rural areas, it accounts for 47%, down from 53%.

As part of methodology upgrades, the ministry has begun collecting prices from e-commerce and digital platforms, including Amazon and Swiggy, across 12 cities with populations above 2.5 million, Garg said.

Prices for airline tickets and OTT streaming services such as Netflix are also being added, he said.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Shubham Batra; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected]; +919810286200; Twitter:@manojgulnar;))

** Indian delivery platform Swiggy SWIG.NS sheds 6.2% to 307.05 rupees

** EBITDA losses at its quick-commerce unit Instamart - its biggest revenue generator - widen sequentially, even as contribution and EBITDA margins improve

** However, at the group-level, SWIG reports narrower sequential loss; reaffirms outlook for contribution margin break-even by Q1 FY27

** "There are a lot of unanswered questions especially on quick-commerce's profitability path," says Jefferies as raises its estimates for Instamart's losses going ahead

** Elara Capital says Q3 results were a "mixed bag" but says it expects aggressive focus on profitability for quick-commerce as management maintained it outlook for contribution margin break-even

** YTD, SWIG down 20.5%

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

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)

(([email protected]; 8800437922;))

Rewrites throughout; Adds analyst comments in paragraph 4,10, CFO comment in 7

By Komal Salecha

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Shares of India's Eternal ETEA.NS erased early gains on Thursday as concerns over the long-term profitability of its quick-commerce unit Blinkit amid intensifying competition outweighed strong results.

The stock lost as much as 2.6% and was down 0.8% as of 12:20 a.m. IST. It hit a high of 8% in premarket trading.

The company, formerly Zomato, reported a 73% rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday.

"While the results are good, there is fear whether it will be able to keep up with profitability," said Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital.

Analysts said risks remain around Blinkit's long-term profitability. Blinkit has become Eternal's biggest revenue engine in recent quarters, fuelled by a boom in India's $11.5 billion quick-commerce market, where rivals race to deliver everything from iPhones to milk in minutes.

Eternal said that growth could weigh on margins in the near-term. It also said founder Deepinder Goyal would step down as chief executive to be replaced by Blinkit head Albinder Dhindsa, while adding that the once cash-hungry unit had turned profitable.

"In the short term, we want to take the right decisions for the business, even if that means taking a hit to margins," Eternal CFO Akshant Goyal said in a post-earnings call, but added that the company was not signalling such an impact in the very next quarter.

Blinkit leads India's quick-commerce market with a 48% share, ahead of Swiggy's SWIG.NS Instamart at 24% and Zepto KIRK.NS at 22%, data for 2025 from Datum Intelligence showed.

The market is projected to more than triple to about $40 billion by 2030, underscoring the high-stakes race for scale and dominance.

"The risk is that the market leader could be drawn into a dogfight too, with lower minimum order values and higher discounts," Morgan Stanley said in a note.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Komal Salecha in Bengaluru; Writing by Chandini Monnappa, Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

(([email protected];))

Rewrites throughout, adds comments from CEO

By Chandini Monnappa and Komal Salecha

Jan 21 (Reuters) - Zomato parent Eternal's ETEA.NS founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal, will step down after 18 years at the helm, handing over the reins to Albinder Dhindsa, the head of its fast-growing quick-commerce business Blinkit.

Goyal launched Zomato in 2008, led it to a landmark stock market listing in 2021 and later rebranded the group as Eternal following its purchase of Blinkit in 2022, which has since become the company's largest revenue driver.

Dhindsa takes over at a time when Eternal is fiercely competing with Swiggy SWIG.NS, Amazon.com AMZN.O and others to expand its share of the lucrative $11.5 billion instant delivery market.

He previously headed Zomato's international operations for more than two years before leaving to start Blinkit in 2014.

Goyal, the poster boy of India's quick delivery boom, will remain Eternal's vice chairman. He said in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday that he was shifting focus to his other ventures involving "exploration and experimentation beyond the company's core businesses."

Zomato, one of India's earliest and most successful unicorns, transformed food delivery from an urban convenience into a widespread cultural phenomenon across the country.

"I want Eternal to become India's most valuable company," Goyal said in the letter.

Eternal's shares have more than doubled since the company's listing to value it at about $15 billion.

While the company has added to India's burgeoning gig workforce, it has also come under fire in the past for deep discounting, driver safety and a move to launch a vegetarian-only delivery fleet.

"While I believe I personally have the bandwidth to continue what I am doing at Eternal, and also explore new ideas outside of it, the expectations, legal and otherwise, of a public company CEO in India demand singular focus," Goyal said.

He has invested $25 million through his research group Continue Research to explore human biology and longevity. He also founded LAT Aerospace to develop low-cost regional and short-haul aircraft for India and emerging markets.

BLINKIT WILL REMAIN DHINDSA'S TOP PRIORITY

Goyal said Blinkit will continue to remain Dhindsa's top priority.

"Blinkit's journey from acquisition to breakeven happened under Dhindsa leadership ... his ability to execute far exceeds mine," Goyal added.

Brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor said bringing in the CEO from Blinkit is testimony that quick commerce is the future. "It is the rainmaker and the key differentiator," he said.

Eternal also reported a 73% jump in quarterly profit, while

Blinkit posted adjusted core earnings of 40 million rupees compared with a loss of 1.56 billion in the previous quarter.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa, Komal Salecha and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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

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Jan 20 - By Ira Dugal, Editor Financial News, with global Reuters staff

Reliance Industries RELI.NS has had a rough start to the year, with a rare share-price slide in January and weaker-than-expected earnings, highlighting the pressures building across some of its key businesses.

What is the outlook for the stock of India's most valuable company? That's our focus this week. Write to us at [email protected]

And, India plans to open up the defence sector to larger foreign investment. Scroll down for that Reuters exclusive report.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

*Japan's snap election and tax pledge keep nation's finances in spotlight

*Indonesia's rupiah hits record low on central bank independence worries

*China curbs ‘flash boys’ access to exchange data, sources say

*As US orders fade, Chinese salespeople face tough grind in new markets

*Dozens missing after massive Karachi mall fire, 21 killed

TESTED BY GEOPOLITICS

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, which has a market value of 19.12 trillion rupees ($210.42 billion), has slumped about 10% so far in 2026, a rare early-year drop that has weighed on the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI, which is down roughly 2%. The last time the stock dropped more in any January was in 2011.

The fall, including a 3% decline after the company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings, reflects complications in its refining business due to geopolitical tensions, intensifying competition in its retail operations, and investor caution ahead of the planned listing of its telecoms unit.

The company faces "headwinds" from loss of Russian crude in its export-focused refinery and higher freight costs in its core oil-to-chemicals business, Jefferies said in a January 16 note.

But it could potentially resume purchases of Venezuelan oil, defraying the loss of Russian barrels, the brokerage said.

Reliance cut imports of Russian oil by 32.4% in December, the lowest level since February 2024, under pressure from Western sanctions, data analysed by Reuters journalist Nidhi Verma showed. The company's Russian imports are likely to be low in January too. Click here for that story.

The company has said it is in talks with the U.S. to permit purchases of oil from Venezuela.

Despite these challenges, the business continues to report strong financials.

Factors working in its favour include strong volume growth and fuel cracks - the difference between the price of refined products and the crude used to produce them - Mumbai-based brokerage BOB Caps said.

Fuel retailing volumes via the Jio-BP joint venture are also expanding, it added.

RETAIL REVENUE GROWTH LAGS

Where the earnings disappointed most was in the retail business, Reliance Retail, which was dragged down by India's shifting consumer preferences.

Reliance Retail reported a 9% growth in net revenue, lower than the 13% for competitor Avenue Supermarts AVEU.NS, and blamed this partly on a shift in festival dates and a demerger of its consumer products division.

Its margins also declined due to discounts offered in the festival season and investments made in quick commerce.

India's fast-changing consumer market has seen attention shift from traditional stores to online shopping and now quick commerce where deliveries within minutes have sparked opportunity and risks.

The company told analysts this business is already margin- positive as Reliance leverages its extensive store network to deliver electronics, fashion, and groceries, creating a unique omnichannel advantage.

The quick-commerce business, where Zomato, run by Eternal ETEA.NS, Swiggy SWIG.NS and Walmart's WMT.O Flipkart are big players, recently came under fire for promoting 10-minute deliveries that critics have argued put delivery staff at risk.

Read here to catch up on the controversy.

Jefferies analysts also red-flagged Reliance's fast-moving consumer goods business where too many brands may mean it is spreading itself "too thin".

While the retail business seems to be some distance away from a listing, the public offering of the telecoms unit Jio Platforms appears imminent.

The government has given the green light for a minimum float of 2.5% for a public listing, clearing the way for large IPOs including Jio's.

Despite the pressures, analysts still see upside to the Reliance Industries stock in 2026, with only 2 of 34 analysts on LSEG listing it as a sell. The median price target on the stock is 1,700 rupees per share, a 20% upside from current levels.

MARKET MATTERS

A ruling by India's top court in a tax case related to U.S. investment firm Tiger Global's sale of shares in Flipkart to Walmart in 2018 has spooked global investors who have poured $180 billion into India via the tax haven of Mauritius.

Read details of the judgement here and don't miss this analysis on its implications for investors.

The ruling comes at a time when India has seen a sharp drop in portfolio and strategic investments from overseas, a decline that the market regulator is trying to reverse through a series of steps.

THIS WEEK'S MUST-READ

India plans to make it much easier for foreign firms to invest in defence companies, Reuters journalists Nikunj Ohri and Sarita Chaganti Singh reported.

Foreign firms may be permitted to pick up 74% in Indian firms with government approval, and tough conditions related to technology transfers may be lifted.

Read the details here.

($1 = 90.6663 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ira Dugal; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(([email protected]; +91-9833024892;))

** Shares of quick commerce firm Swiggy SWIG.NS down 1.71% while Eternal ETEA.NS trades 0.4% higher

** UBS maintains 'Buy' but cuts TP on both; SWIG at 375 rupees from 400 rupees and ETEA at 510 rupees from 580 rupees

** Says discounts, pricing checks and app usage data show strong competition in India's QC sector since Sept'25, with intense margin pressure continuing into Jan'26

** Also cuts EBIDTA estimates for the next 2-3 years by 10-18% for ETEA and 12-28% for SWIG

** On Tuesday, the government ordered Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy to stop promoting their grocery deliveries as a "10-minute" service, Reuters reported citing two sources

** In 2025, SWIG's fell 28.6% whereas ETEA was flat

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

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

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Jan 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India is piling into consumer giants’ basket of troubles. Unilever ULVR.L and Nestlé NESN.S are losing pricing power in the world’s fifth-largest economy amid growing competition from nimble upstarts. It’s an unwelcome headache for the groups that are trying to revive their more established markets in Europe and the U.S. With no easy fixes, the problem may require expensive remedies.

Consumer titans were once synonymous with boringly predictable earnings. But a recent bout of management churn and intense competition has made them about as predictable as the start-ups they are now battling for market share. Last February, $140 billion Unilever replaced its CEO Hein Schumacher with its finance chief Fernando Fernandez to accelerate its growth plans. It also grappled with rising commodity prices and spun out its ice cream unit at a disappointing valuation.

Nestlé is enduring an even trickier time. The $240 billion Kitkat maker is on its third CEO in less than three years and is dealing with a decline in sales in Europe and the U.S. These factors have weighed on the groups’ share prices which are flat versus the same period last year, underperforming Europe’s Stoxx 600 .STOXX which is up nearly 20% in the same period.

In ordinary times, these groups could rely on their Indian businesses to compensate. Indeed, historically they performed better than their parents’ businesses in developed markets. At its 2016 peak, sales at Nestlé India NEST.NS grew nearly 16%, eight times the pace of the Swiss group’s European business and four times that of its Americas unit. As recently as 2021, Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS was growing turnover at a punchy 18% as Europe and the Americas only managed under 5%.

But those dynamics are changing. During the year ended March 2025 sales at HUL grew just 2% , down from double digits two years earlier. Meanwhile, Nestlé ’s Indian business grew 1% in 2024. That run rate means India can barely contribute much more to these groups' top lines than it currently does - 2% and 11% for Nestlé and Unilever respectively.

More concerning for investors, however, is the effect this is having on these groups' profitability. EBITDA margins of Hindustan Unilever and Nestlé India are off pandemic-era peaks and could remain below those levels at least until 2027, according to forecasts compiled by Visible Alpha.

The bosses of these businesses blame the recent weakness on rising commodity prices and high inflation which, coupled with stagnating incomes in the aftermath of Covid, have diminished Indians’ purchasing power.

The danger for investors is the decline may intensify. Affluent urban Indians are increasingly shopping for essentials on e-commerce platforms Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS, which use a network of mini warehouses to deliver everything from milk to umbrellas in 10 minutes. These apps enable challenger brands like Honasa Consumer’s Mamaearth and Investment Corporation of Dubai-backed snackmaker Slurrp Farm to display their brands alongside legacy names like Sunsilk and KitKat, robbing Unilever and Nestlé of their storied distribution edge.

Big groups also missed the boat on premiumisation. Indian consumers have become aspirational. That’s birthed whole categories from grooming products to pancake mixes that Unilever, Nestlé and their large rivals are struggling to compete in.

Amid these forces, consumer group boardrooms face two unpalatable choices. They can jack up prices to protect margins but are likely to lose market share in the hypercompetitive Indian market. Alternatively, they can sacrifice margins to boost growth but that means fewer spoils to share with investors.

The first option hardly seems feasible as smaller and more agile rivals are only likely to take more market share from larger groups. Meanwhile, demand for private labels is growing which will put even more pressure on pricing. For now, investors may have to accept lower margins as Unilever and Nestlé try to protect their businesses and invest more heavily in new products.

The risks are plain to see in these groups' valuations. HUL now trades at 47 times forward earnings, down from 65 times in 2021 and lagging supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts' AVEU.NS 69 times.

For now, there are no easy fixes. Launching their own quick commerce offerings makes little sense for consumer giants as users of the existing apps are proving increasingly sticky. A less immediate but more effective way to counter the loss of pricing power is to rejig their product mix. HUL and Nestlé will have to ensure their presence across categories and locations so that consumers rising up the value chain choose their brands over upstarts. A bigger investment in agile AI-enabled tracking of sales trends at mom-and-pop retailers could help with that.

Acquiring fast-growing brands is another option. HUL's 2025 purchase of personal care brand Minimalist valued its target at 9 times its trailing sales, on par with its own multiple. But buying one of India's top online platforms is out of the question: Eternal and Swiggy are delivery service-based companies that would be a clunky fit in these sprawling manufacturing businesses.

Businesses may also need to rethink marketing in a country where close to two-thirds of the population is under the age of 35 and shopping choices are increasingly based on influencer recommendations. HUL spent 10% of its revenue on sales and marketing in the year to March 2025, while its personal-care rival Honasa shelled out 57%. If the Unilever unit raised marketing spend by 10%, its EBITDA margin would go down 87 basis points, Breakingviews calculations based on Visible Alpha estimates show.

To be sure, all these options involve squeezing margins in the short term to ensure staying power in a crowded market. For now, consumer giants will have to add India to their growing list of fixer upper projects.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X

(Editing by Aimee Donnellan; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

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

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Jan 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India is piling into consumer giants’ basket of troubles. Unilever ULVR.L and Nestlé NESN.S are losing pricing power in the world’s fifth-largest economy amid growing competition from nimble upstarts. It’s an unwelcome headache for the groups that are trying to revive their more established markets in Europe and the U.S. With no easy fixes, the problem may require expensive remedies.

Consumer titans were once synonymous with boringly predictable earnings. But a recent bout of management churn and intense competition has made them about as predictable as the start-ups they are now battling for market share. Last February, $140 billion Unilever replaced its CEO Hein Schumacher with its finance chief Fernando Fernandez to accelerate its growth plans. It also grappled with rising commodity prices and spun out its ice cream unit at a disappointing valuation.

Nestlé is enduring an even trickier time. The $240 billion Kitkat maker is on its third CEO in less than three years and is dealing with a decline in sales in Europe and the U.S. These factors have weighed on the groups’ share prices which are flat versus the same period last year, underperforming Europe’s Stoxx 600 .STOXX which is up nearly 20% in the same period.

In ordinary times, these groups could rely on their Indian businesses to compensate. Indeed, historically they performed better than their parents’ businesses in developed markets. At its 2016 peak, sales at Nestlé India NEST.NS grew nearly 16%, eight times the pace of the Swiss group’s European business and four times that of its Americas unit. As recently as 2021, Hindustan Unilever HLL.NS was growing turnover at a punchy 18% as Europe and the Americas only managed under 5%.

But those dynamics are changing. During the year ended March 2025 sales at HUL grew just 2% , down from double digits two years earlier. Meanwhile, Nestlé ’s Indian business grew 1% in 2024. That run rate means India can barely contribute much more to these groups' top lines than it currently does - 2% and 11% for Nestlé and Unilever respectively.

More concerning for investors, however, is the effect this is having on these groups' profitability. EBITDA margins of Hindustan Unilever and Nestlé India are off pandemic-era peaks and could remain below those levels at least until 2027, according to forecasts compiled by Visible Alpha.

The bosses of these businesses blame the recent weakness on rising commodity prices and high inflation which, coupled with stagnating incomes in the aftermath of Covid, have diminished Indians’ purchasing power.

The danger for investors is the decline may intensify. Affluent urban Indians are increasingly shopping for essentials on e-commerce platforms Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS, which use a network of mini warehouses to deliver everything from milk to umbrellas in 10 minutes. These apps enable challenger brands like Honasa Consumer’s Mamaearth and Investment Corporation of Dubai-backed snackmaker Slurrp Farm to display their brands alongside legacy names like Sunsilk and KitKat, robbing Unilever and Nestlé of their storied distribution edge.

Big groups also missed the boat on premiumisation. Indian consumers have become aspirational. That’s birthed whole categories from grooming products to pancake mixes that Unilever, Nestlé and their large rivals are struggling to compete in.

Amid these forces, consumer group boardrooms face two unpalatable choices. They can jack up prices to protect margins but are likely to lose market share in the hypercompetitive Indian market. Alternatively, they can sacrifice margins to boost growth but that means fewer spoils to share with investors.

The first option hardly seems feasible as smaller and more agile rivals are only likely to take more market share from larger groups. Meanwhile, demand for private labels is growing which will put even more pressure on pricing. For now, investors may have to accept lower margins as Unilever and Nestlé try to protect their businesses and invest more heavily in new products.

The risks are plain to see in these groups' valuations. HUL now trades at 47 times forward earnings, down from 65 times in 2021 and lagging supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts' AVEU.NS 69 times.

For now, there are no easy fixes. Launching their own quick commerce offerings makes little sense for consumer giants as users of the existing apps are proving increasingly sticky. A less immediate but more effective way to counter the loss of pricing power is to rejig their product mix. HUL and Nestlé will have to ensure their presence across categories and locations so that consumers rising up the value chain choose their brands over upstarts. A bigger investment in agile AI-enabled tracking of sales trends at mom-and-pop retailers could help with that.

Acquiring fast-growing brands is another option. HUL's 2025 purchase of personal care brand Minimalist valued its target at 9 times its trailing sales, on par with its own multiple. But buying one of India's top online platforms is out of the question: Eternal and Swiggy are delivery service-based companies that would be a clunky fit in these sprawling manufacturing businesses.

Businesses may also need to rethink marketing in a country where close to two-thirds of the population is under the age of 35 and shopping choices are increasingly based on influencer recommendations. HUL spent 10% of its revenue on sales and marketing in the year to March 2025, while its personal-care rival Honasa shelled out 57%. If the Unilever unit raised marketing spend by 10%, its EBITDA margin would go down 87 basis points, Breakingviews calculations based on Visible Alpha estimates show.

To be sure, all these options involve squeezing margins in the short term to ensure staying power in a crowded market. For now, consumer giants will have to add India to their growing list of fixer upper projects.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X

(Editing by Aimee Donnellan; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

Jan 5 (Reuters) - Swiggy Ltd SWIG.NS:

• CYRUS SOLI POONAWALLA BUYS 1.1 MILLION SHARES IN SWIGGY VIA BLOCK DEAL ON NSE - EXCHANGE DATA

• SERUM INSTITUTE OF INDIA SELLS 1.1 MILLION SHARES IN SWIGGY VIA BLOCK DEAL ON NSE - EXCHANGE DATA

Further company coverage: SWIG.NS

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Refiles to add conversion of Indian rupee into US dollar in the second paragraph.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - All that glitters isn't gold when it comes to India's richest man. When Mukesh Ambani lists his telecom business in Mumbai next year, it will be a blockbuster event for the country's capital markets but it also will crystallise underwhelming returns for the world's biggest tech companies, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds who backed his consumer unit in 2020. It heralds a reset of how foreigners view tycoons and competition in the country.

Five years ago when the Covid pandemic was shaking the world, Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS sold 1.5 trillion rupees ($16.99 billion) of stock in Jio Platforms to investors led by Meta Platforms META.O, KKR KKR.N and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund; the flood of funds into India at the time was so large it caused a spike in foreign direct investment.

At 5.16 trillion rupees including debt, or $59 billion at current exchange rates, the landmark fundraising valued Jio's enterprise at 23 times its EBITDA, a multiple twice its nearest rival Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel and one reminiscent of a fast-growing technology startup.

Part of the hype was justified. The telecom unit Ambani founded in 2016 rose quickly by launching a bruising price war and was given a wide berth by India's competition authorities. Jio became the country's top provider of mobile services and helped to push down data tariffs to the lowest in the world. It even accelerated the bankruptcy of Reliance Communications RLCM.NS, led by Ambani's brother Anil. By the time Ambani welcomed outside investors, India's telecoms market had shrunk to a quasi-duopoly with a joint venture between Britain's Vodafone VOD.L and Kumar Mangalam Birla as a weak third player.

Fast forward and Jio had 498 million voice and data customers as of June 30 . Yet while this consumer business within Ambani's oil-to-retail conglomerate has continued to grow, it also has failed to live up to expectations in some striking ways.

Five years on from its fundraising, Jio's enterprise, including net debt, is valued at 10.6 trillion rupees, based on an average estimate of six brokers. That is nearly twice the value investors assigned it in 2020 or equivalent to an annualised return of nearly about 15%, one percentage point more than the annualised gross return of the MSCI India Index over a five year period. Private equity investors typically target returns of 20% and much higher in India.

Measured a different way, Jio's potential return could be even lower. The enterprise is worth just 8.7 trillion rupees if it is valued on 10 times its EBITDA, the same multiple Bharti Airtel commands. At that valuation, Jio would hand its backers including KKR, Silver Lake and TPG, an annualised return of just over 10%.

One problem is that Jio does not look like a "next generation technology platform". In 2020, Jio talked up a dazzling list of investments across its "digital ecosystem" including in "smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, augmented and mixed reality and blockchain". Although Jio doesn't have legacy 3G infrastructure to manage like its rivals, it still makes 87% of its revenue and 94% of its EBITDA from its basic communications unit Reliance Jio Infocomm RELJ.NS rather than from digital services, per CLSA analysts.

What's more, Jio's customers spend less than Airtel's. Average revenue per user has grown 60% over the last five years to 209 rupees ($2.37) but that lags the 250 rupees Airtel's India users churn out. Airtel's EBITDA margin for India and South Asia is also higher than Jio's by a staggering 770 basis points and its current offerings in cloud and artificial intelligence services closely mirror its challenger's.

Nor does Jio appear to have delivered on its strategic ambitions. Meta's Facebook pumped $6 billion in for a 10% stake but Ambani - whose Reliance conglomerate is also the owner of India's biggest retailer - did not lure millions of small grocers to transact on the payments system on WhatsApp, the U.S. company's social messaging platform - as was widely expected.

The rise of quick-commerce operations by Prosus-backed Swiggy SWIG.NS and Zomato-owner Eternal ETEA.NS killed Reliance Retail's 2022 attempt to enable grocery shopping through the messaging app. Similarly, Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O invested $4.5 billion in Jio but demand for the low-cost smartphone the duo launched in 2021 was weak; the telecom operator's wide reach didn't guarantee it a market.

Ambani's backers underestimated the strength of competition in India. They would have been better off if they had backed Bharti Airtel. Its shares have returned roughly 40% annually, including dividends, since 2020, significantly more than Jio looks set to deliver. Google enjoyed some of those spoils by hedging its bets: In 2022 it invested up to $1 billion in Jio's rival.

If Jio's returns are underwhelming, crystallizing them will be tough too. Ambani will need to launch one of India's largest initial public offerings. If 5% of the company's outstanding shares swap hands at a $120 billion valuation, Jio's bankers would need to find new owners for $6 billion of stock. That would be far too much for India's capital markets to swallow: Hyundai Motor India's HYUN.NS 279 billion rupee offering in 2024 remains the country's largest IPO, followed by Life Insurance Corporation's LIFI.NS 210 billion rupee deal in 2022.

Ambani could offer half the amount of stock or roughly $3 billion, using new rules from the Securities and Exchange Board of India but that would leave financial investors with billions of dollars of investments in Jio waiting for an exit; strategic investors, who may be willing to sit on their positions, bought about half of the $17 billion Jio initially raised.

Some of Jio's backers may still conclude that the investment was worth it. The dominance of family-led businesses in India often means that striking partnerships is increasingly seen as a matter of survival rather than choice for global companies and a way to protect themselves in the market. Global asset manager BlackRock BLK.N and China-founded online fast-fashion Shein are among others who are partnering with Ambani.

Yet an underwhelming payoff from Jio will strengthen the case for more scrutiny when foreign investors choose their local alliances in the future.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Reliance Industries will list its telecommunications unit by mid-2026, Chair Mukesh Ambani said at the conglomerate's annual shareholder meeting on August 29. "We are aiming to list Jio by the first-half of 2026, subject to all necessary approvals," he said.

Jio Platforms is targeting India's largest-ever initial public offering, IFR reported on September 5, citing unnamed bankers.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

By Ananta Agarwal and Mridula Kumar Kumar

Oct 15 (Reuters) - Indian online delivery firms Eternal ETEA.NS and Swiggy SWIG.NS could see profit margins improve slightly in the second quarter, analysts said, after at least a year of accelerating losses in their quick commerce arms due to higher costs.

Eternal's Blinkit, Swiggy's Instamart and start-up Zepto have emerged as the top players in India's booming quick commerce industry, which has seen marquee foreign investors pour in billions in funding.

In the frenzy to gain market share, Blinkit has established itself firmly in the lead by expanding first to smaller towns.

Their rapid expansion, as they aim to deliver everything from milk to iPhones in ten minutes, has weighed on Eternal's margins and widened Swiggy's losses.

The trend may begin to show reversal in the second quarter, as these companies benefit from a gradual reduction in discounting and improved unit economics that come with bigger scale and density, two analysts said.

Eternal is set to report results on Thursday, while Swiggy has not yet announced a date for its earnings.

"You may see some decline (in losses) for Blinkit. For Swiggy, the decline may be there, but marginally," said Rishi Jhunjhunwala, equity analyst at IIFL Capital Services.

At least four analysts expect Blinkit's adjusted core loss to narrow sequentially from 1.62 billion rupees ($18.35 million) in the first quarter. ICICI Securities and Elara Capital expect the loss to shrink to about 1 billion rupees in the second quarter.

ICICI Securities and Motilal Oswal expect Blinkit's adjusted EBITDA margin loss at between 0.7% and 0.6% in the second quarter compared to an EBITDA margin loss of 1.4% in the previous quarter, as a higher store count brings down cost per order.

Meanwhile, analysts at Elara Capital, Anand Rathi and ICICI Securities expect Instamart's loss to be roughly flat or slightly wider versus the previous quarter's 8.96 billion rupees loss.

However, Motilal, ICICI and Anand Rathi expect Instamart's adjusted EBITDA margin loss to narrow between 12.7% and 13.8%, compared to a margin loss of 15.8% of gross order value last quarter.

ETERNAL AND SWIGGY YEAR TO DATE STOCK PERFORMANCE

($1 = 88.3000 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ananta Agarwal and Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)

(([email protected];))

** Swiggy SWIG.NS, Zomato-parent Eternal ETEA.NS rise 2% each

** Motilal Oswal upgrades SWIG to "buy" from "neutral", raises PT to 560 rupees from 450 rupees

** Retains "buy" on ETEA, raises PT to 420 rupees from 330 rupees

** Says GST changes expected to accelerate adoption of quick commerce services in non-metro cities

** Expects food delivery growth to exceed 20% over the next two-four quarters, up from previously stunted 17%–18% growth, driven by upcoming festive demand, GST reforms

** Highlights easing expansion, discounts at Swiggy Instamart and Blinkit

** SWIG, ETEA rated "buy" on avg, with median PT of 450 rupees, 321 rupees, respectively, per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, SWIG falls 20%, ETEA gains 20%

(Reporting by Rudra Pratap Singh in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))