India's Zomato posts smaller net loss as online orders jump

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian food delivery firm Zomato Ltd on Thursday reported a narrower loss for the second quarter thanks to a rise in volumes and value of online orders.

Adjusted core loss, excluding figures for its recently acquired quick-commerce business Blinkit, narrowed to 600 million Indian rupees ($7.37 million) from 3.1 billion rupees.

"We expect the adjusted EBITDA loss to come down further and eventually get to breakeven in the next two to four quarters," Zomato said.

Gross order value - the total value of all food delivery orders placed online on Zomato's platform - jumped nearly 23% to 66.31 billion rupees, slightly below Morgan Stanley's estimate of 67 billion rupees.

Revenue from operations jumped 62% to 16.61 billion rupees, with its food delivery business registering a growth of 33%.

Consolidated net loss stood at 2.51 billion rupees for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 4.30 billion rupees a year earlier, the Gurugram-based company said in an exchange filing.

($1 = 81.3620 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)