UberEats close to sell food delivery biz to Swiggy

Uber Eats, the food delivery arm of ride-hailing app Uber Technologies Inc, is close to a deal to sell its Indian business to Bengaluru-based Swiggy, the Economic Times reported on Friday.

The share-swap deal is expected to close by next month and will give Uber a 10 percent stake in food delivery service Swiggy, the paper said, citing people privy to the development.

Separately, the Times of India reported https://bit.ly/2GSIfQm that Uber was considering the sale of its food delivery arm in India and has been in talks with Swiggy and Gurugram-based Zomato.

Swiggy is currently leading discussions but rival Zomato is still in the race for a share-swap deal, the Times of India said, citing sources familiar with the development.

Swiggy, which runs a mobile-based application and a website for food-delivery services, currently operates in more than 80 Indian cities.

Swiggy was valued at a little more than $3 billion and competes with homegrown Ola-owned Foodpanda, Uber Eats and China's Ant Financial Group-backed Zomato, which is valued at over $1 billion.

Both Swiggy and Uber declined to comment while Zomato did not immediately respond.

Last week, San Francisco-based Uber posted a 2 percent growth in quarterly revenue, raising questions about its future growth prospects, as the company prepares for a public offering.

Uber in December filed confidentially for an initial public offering, setting the stage for one of the biggest technology listings ever.