Mumbai, Jul 14 (IANS):The much anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of online food delivery company Zomato opened on Wednesday at Rs 72-76 per share offer and was fully received by the retail investors.

The retail segment of the offering has been fully subscribed in just over an hour. So far, the IPO has been subscribed around 20 percent on the first day of bidding.

On Tuesday, the company said that it has raised Rs 4,196 crore from several prominent institutional investors as part of an anchor book allocation. It has allocated 55.2 crore equity shares, to anchor investors, at a price of Rs 76 per share.

Government of Singapore, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority among others were the participants in the anchor book.

Jyoti Roy, DVP- Equity Strategist at Angel Broking Ltd noted that along with global investors the anchor portion witnessed strong participation from domestic mutual funds who were allotted 18.4 crore shares aggregating to Rs 1,399 crore out of the Rs. 4,196 crore anchor book.

"Strong participation by institutions in the anchor book bodes well for the IPO and we expect continued strong demand for the IPO from both institutional and retail investors alike. Given strong delivery network, high barriers to entry, expected turnaround and significant growth opportunities in tier-II and tier-III cities, we believe that Zomato will command a premium to global peers and hence have a 'SUBSCRIBE' recommendation on the IPO," Roy said.

The issue comprises an offer for sale of Rs 375 crore by the Info Edge and a fresh issue worth Rs 9,000 crore.