Eternal shares decline nearly 2 pc after Q2 earnings

New Delhi, Oct 17 (PTI) Shares of food delivery and quick commerce firm Eternal, which owns the Zomato and Blinkit brands, on Friday ended nearly 2 per cent lower, a day after reporting its second quarter

earnings, which failed to cheer investors.

The stock dipped 1.64 per cent to settle at Rs 342.70 apiece on the BSE. During the day, it dropped 4.20 per cent to Rs 333.75.

On the NSE, the stock fell by 1.49 per cent to Rs 342.65 after declining 4.05 per cent to Rs 333.75 during the day.

Eternal on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 65 crore for the second quarter ended September, with the quick commerce business contributing significantly to its revenue growth.

The company, which re-branded itself as Eternal in March, had reported a net profit of Rs 176 crore in the June-September quarter of the last fiscal.

In a regulatory filing, Eternal said the results are not comparable with the corresponding quarter last year on account of the acquisition of Orbgen Technologies Pvt Ltd and Wasteland Entertainment Pvt Ltd, holding the ‘movie ticketing’ and the ‘events’ businesses, respectively, from One 97 Communications Ltd (Paytm’s parent firm), which completed in August 2024.

In a letter to shareholders, Eternal said it expects “a slow uptick in growth rate in the near term” for the food delivery net order value (NOV) for Zomato, due to multiple headwinds, including soft discretionary consumption, impact of quick commerce growth and increasingly volatile weather conditions.

“In line with our expectation, NOV growth rate (YoY) did go up in Q2FY26 after declining consistently for the last five quarters. Having said that, the recovery in growth has been slower than expected, and we only expect a slow uptick in growth rate in the near term.

“While we continue to work on inputs to the business, we are also constantly fighting multiple headwinds including soft discretionary consumption in general in India, the impact of quick commerce growth and increasingly volatile weather (extreme heat, extended rains), which continue to weigh on near term growth,” Eternal Founder Deepinder Goyal stated on the outlook for the food delivery NOV growth rate. PTI SUM SUM SHW