Zomato on Wednesday announced that the company board has approved the acquisition of One 97 Communications Limited (OCL)’s entertainment ticketing business (Paytm Insider) for Rs 2048.4 crore in cash consideration.
In a regulatory filing, Zomato said the board of directors has given an approval to enter into a Share Purchase and Subscription Agreement (SPSA) with One 97 Communications Limited (OCL), Wasteland Entertainment Private Limited (WEPL), and Orbgen Technologies Private Limited (OTPL) to acquire the entertainment ticketing business.
The transaction, OCL said, will be effectuated in the following manner: a) OCL will transfer its movies ticketing business and sports and events ticketing business to its wholly owned subsidiaries OTPL and WEPL respectively through a slump sale. Further, the company will do a primary infusion into OTPL and WEPL by way of a preferential allotment for an amount equal to the slump sale consideration, which will be used to discharge the consideration payable to OCL for the slump sale above. Simultaneously, the company will acquire the entire stake owned by OCL in OTPL and WEPL through a share purchase transaction, resulting in OTPL and WEPL becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of the company.
The acquisition will be completed within 90 days of the SPSA. While the cost of acquiring OTPL was Rs 1,264.6 crore, Zomato said that the WEPL’s acquisition was worth Rs 783.8 crore.
The acquisition will help Zomato expand its portfolio beyond food delivery and dining services and foray into the entertainment ticketing sector. In the exchange filing, Zomato said that the acquisition is in line with the company’s strategy of investing in its Going-out business.
OTPL was incorporated on November 23, 2007 in India and is in the business of listing and sale of movie tickets and other services. It had recorded turnover as at March 31, 2024 at Rs 13.14 crore. WEPL, meanwhile, was incorporated on December 21, 2015 in India and is in the business of listing and sale of event tickets and other services. The company turnover as at March 31, 2024 stood at Rs 236.03 crore.
Meanwhile, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Paytm said, “Knock, knock @zomato! We’ve dropped off some 🎬 to go with your 🍕. Hope you’re ready for some real fun – showtime is now in your hands! 🫶We will keep making payments awesome for everyone 🤩, and keep expanding our financial services distribution.”
Earlier in June, Zomato had informed the exchanges that it is in talks with Paytm to acquire Paytm’s movies and events business. “The above discussion is being undertaken with an intent to further strengthen our going-out business and is in line with our stated position of focusing only on our four key businesses currently,” it had said.
Later in August, Zomato announced the launch of ‘District,’ a new app consolidating its “going-out” business, including dining and ticketing for movies and events. Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal had said, “Today, Zomato and Blinkit are our two large consumer businesses, serving customers’ needs at home. However, we also have one of India’s largest ‘going-out’ businesses, helping our customers discover restaurants for dining out.”
He had further added, “We believe that there is an opportunity to further expand our going-out offering, building on top of our dining-out business. Additional use cases for customers in the going out space include – movies, sports ticketing, live performances, shopping, staycations etc., some of which we have already launched, or are building as we speak.”