Eternal's Q3 profit up 73 pc at Rs 102 cr; CEO Deepinder Goyal resigns

New Delhi, Jan 21 (PTI) Eternal, the parent entity of Zomato and Blinkit, on Wednesday reported 72.88 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 102 crore for December quarter FY26, driven by robust revenue growth from its quick commerce operations.

In the year-ago period, the company logged a profit of Rs 59 crore.

The company's board also approved the resignation of Deepinder Goyal as Director, MD & CEO of the company, with effect from February 1 and recommended his appointment as Vice Chairman & Director on the board for a five-year term.

Besides, the board approved the appointment of Albinder Singh Dhindsa, currently Blinkit's CEO, as Eternal's Chief Executive Officer from February 1, a regulatory filing said.

Eternal's revenue from its quick commerce business Blinkit jumped multifold to Rs 12,256 crore in the quarter from Rs 1,399 a year ago.

However, losses from its business District, which is into providing services like ticketing and dining out, increased on account of continued investments in category creation, Eternal said, observing that it expects losses to reduce from here sequentially towards break-even in the next 4-6 quarters.

In a letter to shareholders, Eternal's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Akshant Goyal stated that its cash balance decreased to Rs 17,820 crore (vs Rs 18,314 crore in Q2FY26) largely due to the expected investments in capital expenditure and net working capital in its quick commerce business (Blinkit).

Eternal informed that the Blinkit and Hyperpure (B2B supply chain) businesses turned Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) profitable in Q3FY26, for the first time ever.

The company shared that 211 net new stores were added on Blinkit, taking total store count at the end of the quarter to 2,027, and it is on track for the target of having 3,000 stores by March 2027.

"We will continue being watchful of competition, but largely focus on our own work as long as the competitive tactics don't impact our business meaningfully. So far, there hasn't been any noticeable impact of the recent increase in competitive intensity on our business quality, customers and our NOV market share," Dhindsa stated.

In the letter to shareholders, he explained that factors including enforcement of the pollution-linked GRAP regulations in Delhi NCR and festive period operational constraints led to the shortfall of 70 stores at 2,027 as against the target of 2,100 stores.

On the impact of implementation of the new labour codes notified in November, Goyal shared that most likely, the business should be able to absorb most of this impact and hence it does not expect any change in the long-term margin guidance in any business.

He also informed that the quarterly losses in the 'Others' segment are largely on account of investments in Eternal's quick food delivery service Bistro.

"We now have about 45 kitchens operational mainly in two cities (Delhi- NCR, Bangalore). We are seeing early signs of product-market-fit, reflected in healthy throughput per outlet and early signs of a possible path to profitability," he stated. PTI RSN RKL ANU ANU