Food delivery platform Zomato Ltd’s proposal to acquire Blinkit (formerly Grofers), a quick commerce company, was approved by its shareholders, according to a BSE filing. 

Amongst the votes polled, about 97 per cent were in favour of the deal. Zomato is set to acquire Blinkit for ₹4,447 crore ($570 million), in an all-stock deal. It will acquire upto 33,018 equity shares of Blinkit and allot upto 62.85 crore fully paid-up equity shares at ₹70.76 a scrip to Blinkit shareholders. 

ESOP

In addition, the BSE filing showed that Zomato distributed 4.6 lakh equity shares on Tuesday from its ESOP (employee stock option plan) pool at an exercise price of ₹1.

The Blinkit acquisition has happened at a discounted valuation as compared to Blinkit’s $1 billion unicorn valuation in 2021. Post the acquisition, the Blinkit team and CEO Albinder Dhindsa will continue to run the company as an independent entity and app. 

Following the approval’s notification to the exchange, Zomato’s scrip began trading in green. The shares closed at ₹43.95 up by 5.52 per cent today. In the last two days, the share price had slumped more than 10 per cent after the mandatory lock-in period for pre-IPO shareholders expired on Saturday.