Swiggy IPO listing makes 500 employees 'crorepatis'

As India's food-tech major Swiggy gears up for one of the largest IPO listings in recent years, its 500-odd employees are set to reap the fortunes of their work for the company as they will earn ₹1 crore each following the company's listing on the stock exchanges today. It is estimated that the company will pay around ₹9,000 crore worth of ESOP options at the upper price band of ₹390 per share to 5,000 current and former employees, one of the largest ESOP exercises in India's start-up scene.

In July this year, Swiggy had an ESOP buyback program worth ₹500 crore for the company employees. Before that, in April, the Bengaluru-based food-tech major allocated ESOPs worth $271 million to its top management, including group chief executive office Sriharsha Majety, co-founders Nandan Reddy and Phani Kishan Addepalli, CFO Rahul Bothra, CTO Madhusudhan Rao, food marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor and Instamart CEO Amitesh Jha.

Among the biggest ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) payout exercises, Swiggy follows Walmart-led Flipkart, which so far has paid about $1.4 billion-1.5 billion in ESOP payout to its employees. Additionally, Flipkart rolled out 5 share buyback programs worth over $1.4-1.5 billion in the past five years. Swiggy's rival company and India's largest delivery platform Zomato also released around ₹7,000 crore in ESOP payout to its employees during its listing on July 23, 2021.

Swiggy IPO

The foodtech unicorn Swiggy raised ₹11,327 crore in India's second-biggest IPO this year after Hyundai Motor India. Despite being the second-largest e-commerce and food delivery player, it received a sluggish response for its public issue, which was offered at a price band of ₹371-390 per share between November 6-8. If the grey market trends and analysts prediction are to be believed, there is a very high possibility of flat to negative listing of the stock on the domestic bourses.

The grey market premium (GMP) of Swiggy shares dropped significantly in recent days, from ₹9.50 on the day of opening of the IPO to ₹2 yesterday, though it is higher than Monday’s GMP of ₹1 apiece. With this, the shares are expected to list around ₹392, a tad higher than issue price of ₹390.

Swiggy's revenue from operations for the financial year 2022-23 stood at ₹8,264.6 crore, up from ₹5,704.9 crore in the previous fiscal year. The net loss surged to ₹4,179 crore in 2022-23 against ₹3,627 crore in 2021-22.