Japan's SoftBank will likely sell shares in India's Zomato - CNBC-TV18

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Japan's SoftBank Group will likely sell shares in Indian food delivery firm Zomato as the lock-in for investors post the company's acquisition of Blinkit ends on Aug. 25, CNBC-TV18 reported on Friday, citing sources.

Zomato, which acquired the quick grocery-delivery startup Blinkit for 44.47 billion rupees ($538.05 million) last year, had issued a 3.55% stake to investor Softbank as part of the deal.

U.S.-based firms Sequoia and Tiger Global, who were investors in Blinkit, had also received shares in Zomato after the acquisition.

Shares received by the investors will unlock for trading on Aug. 28, CNBC-TV18 said. Zomato and Softbank declined to comment on the report.

The broadcaster's report did not specify if Softbank plans on selling its entire stake in Zomato.

About 5.07 million shares of Gurgaon-based Zomato changed hands on Friday in a block deal at 91.8 rupees per share, Refinitiv data showed, although the details of the transaction were not known.

Shares were last down about 3.1%.

($1 = 82.6510 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Eileen Soreng)