Japanese investment firm SoftBank is preparing to offload shares from Indian food delivery start-up Zomato as the lock-in for investors after the acquisition of Blinkit ends on August 25, CNBC-TV18 reported, quoting sources. 

Last year, Zomato acquired grocery-delivery start-up Blinkit for Rs 44 billion ($538.05 million) and handed over a 3.55 per cent stake to Softbank, which was also an investor in Blinkit. After the report came in, Zomato's shares fell as much as 3.5 per cent during the intraday trading on BSE. 

India is the third largest economy after China and the US, where Softbank is invested in heavily. 

Now, the Masayoshi Son-led investor is eying enhanced profit by offloading Zomato shares; at the time of the Blinkit deal, its prices were around Rs 70.76 per share as compared to 93.10 on August 28, 2023. Zomato share prices almost doubled after the company announced that it had attained profitability in the June 2023 quarter.

Sources say that Softbank is planning to book more profit by selling stakes in the other major Indian start-ups that it backs, including Paytm and Delhivery. In recent months, it sold its stake in Paytm and reduced its investment in Indian companies by 84 per cent by the end of 2022. 

Zomato's contribution to SoftBank Vision Funds has seen a decline, coming down to $46 million at the end of June 30, 2023 from $131 million at the end of March 2023.