Shares of Eternal, the parent company of Zomato and Blinkit, witnessed significant block deals on August 31 as BNP Paribas and an affiliate of Millennium Management executed substantial stake sales. According to NSE data, BNP Paribas Financial Markets sold 5.09 crore Eternal shares at ₹327.93 per share, generating a transaction value of approximately ₹1,670.9 crore. Integrated Core Strategies (Asia), an affiliate of Millennium Management, sold another 4.9 crore shares at ₹327.90 each, resulting in a deal worth around ₹1,594 crore. Together, these two transactions involved approximately 9.9 crore shares, with the identities of the buyers remaining undisclosed. The sold shares changed hands at an average price of ₹327.92 per share, representing a premium of 0.06% to the stock's closing price on Monday.
The latest transactions represent a significant shift in Eternal's ownership structure, particularly for BNP Paribas. As reported by Entrackr, this sale comes approximately one year after BNP Paribas had built a sizable position in Eternal, having purchased 6.24 crore shares for around ₹1,488 crore last year. Additionally, Integrated Core Strategies and BNP Paribas also reported smaller purchases of Eternal shares worth ₹35.4 lakh and ₹2.06 crore, respectively, during the same period. Separately, BNP Paribas bought 64,474 shares at ₹320.28 each for ₹2.1 crore and Integrated Core Strategies purchased 10,758 shares at ₹328.95 apiece for ₹35.4 lakhs.
The block deals follow Eternal's robust financial performance in the June quarter, with the company demonstrating exceptional growth across key metrics. According to Entrackr, Eternal's operating revenue jumped 182% year-on-year to ₹20,211 crore in Q1 FY27, while the company reported a consolidated net profit of ₹92 crore during the quarter. The company has continued to expand its food delivery and quick commerce businesses, with Blinkit remaining a key growth driver in the current market environment. Notably, Eternal reported a consolidated net profit of ₹92 crore in Q1 FY27, up nearly 3.7X from ₹25 crore in the year-ago quarter, while operating revenue surged 182% YoY and 17% QoQ.
Despite the significant stake sales, Eternal shares have demonstrated strong performance over the longer term. As reported by Entrackr, Eternal shares gained 34.29% over the past six months, rising by ₹83.28 to ₹326.15 as of September 1. However, the stock ended Tuesday's session at ₹327.7 on the BSE, down 0.02%. The uptick in Eternal's stock price has come on the back of strong financial performance despite raging competition in the quick commerce space and entry of new players such as Rapido's Ownly and potentially Flipkart in the food delivery space. The stake sale came ahead of the MSCI index rejig, which will take effect on September 1, with the rebalancing set to increase the weightage for Eternal stock.
