Goldman Sachs Offloads Eternal Stake in INR 169 Crore Block Deal

In a massive block sale valued at INR 168.7 Cr, financial services juggernaut Goldman Sachs sold 53.4 lakh shares in foodtech giant Eternal. The investment bank reportedly made INR 316 per share when it sold the shares through its subsidiary Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE, as reported by the NSE. At a discount of over 2.6% to the stock's latest closing price on October 15th, the investor sold their interest.

For INR 168.7 Cr, Bank of America bought all the shares that flooded the market through its affiliate BofA Securities Europe. In the last two months, Eternal has witnessed not one, but two blocks. Early in September, a combined total of INR 3,264.8 Cr was realised from the sale of more than 9.9 Cr shares of the listed foodtech company by French financial services firm BNP Paribas and US-based hedge fund Millennium Management.

Eternal’s Financial Performance

Investors' continued optimism on Eternal coincides with this new block deal. The foodtech giant's stock has soared 16.2% so far this year and over 10% in the last three months alone. Even though competition in the rapid commerce field is heating up and new entrants like Rapido's Ownly, Flipkart, and Swish have entered the market, Eternal has maintained good financial performance, which has led to an increase in the share price of the firm.

Blinkit, Eternal's fast commerce subsidiary, continues to rule the instant delivery sector and is the engine that has been driving the stock price up. From a financial perspective, Eternal's consolidated net profit in Q1 FY27 was INR 92 Cr, which is over 3.7 times more than the INR 25 Cr reported in the same quarter last year. During the quarter being reviewed, operating revenue increased by 182% year-on-year and 17% quarter-on-quarter, reaching INR 20,211 Cr. On the BSE, Eternal's share price ended the trading session on 15 October at INR 324.35—a gain of 2.77%.

India’s Q-Commerece Becoming a Fierce Battle Field

With 1,000 dark stores under its belt, Flipkart Minutes has expanded to 130 locations in under two years. In the next months, Flipkart plans to open 1,500 outlets in more than 180 locations. Macquarie Equity Research reported on May 15 that Blinkit had 2,243 dark stores in the year ended March 31, while Swiggy was in second place with 1,143.

The business empire of billionaire Mukesh Ambani is expanding into fast cross-category commerce through its JioMart platform by utilising Reliance Retail Ltd.'s extensive network of physical locations. Shareholders of Reliance were informed at the annual general meeting earlier this month that the company's network of 3,100 outlets and more serves over 1,200 cities. The positive aspect is that the increase in demand has spread beyond the major cities and into smaller communities in Tier 2 and Tier 3. Therefore, analysts from Emkay noted in a research dated June 14 that the quick-commerce model has a pan-India appeal.