(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Refiles to fix the date in the dateline.)

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Nov 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Prosus is receiving a long-awaited parcel of returns in India with the Mumbai listing of Swiggy . Shares of the company, one half of a food delivery duopoly, opened up 8% on Wednesday, a decent start. However, other bets in the country by the $100 billion Amsterdam-listed vehicle controlled by South Africa's Naspers may be harder to monetise.

Swiggy had lured some $1.3 billion of funding from Prosus since 2017. It was the largest single outlay among investments worth $8 billion in the country; new CEO Fabricio Bloisi has re-affirmed India's status as one of the Dutch group's “global priority” markets alongside Brazil and Southeast Asia.

On paper, Prosus is doubling its money in Swiggy. It sold shares worth $510 million in the initial public offering, and its remaining 24% stake in the company is worth $2.5 billion at the top end of the IPO price range. Shares of its only real rival, Zomato , surged 105% this year after the company turned profitable; secondary trading may be less impressive for Swiggy both because the company is loss-making and India's buoyant stock market is starting to correct.

Overall, India is proving hard work. In the year to March, Prosus wrote off its nearly 10% stake in education technology firm Byju's, once India’s most valuable startup. That company is battling bankruptcy proceedings at home and in the United States: Founder Byju Raveendran said last month he overestimated the growth potential of his education-technology company which is now "worth zero".

Timing has been an issue too. Prosus' other big portfolio company, the payments and lending firm PayU is emerging from a 15-month regulatory ban on enlisting new merchants. The Reserve Bank of India’s clampdown on unsecured credit over the past year has cooled growth in this hot corner of the financial market.

Elsewhere, competition looms. Prosus owns nearly 12% of Meesho, a profitable e-commerce marketplace for budget shoppers. It became the world’s fastest shopping app to cross 500 million cumulative downloads. There is a constant threat that deep-pocketed giants including Amazon , Walmart-backed

Flipkart and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries

could intrude on its success. Bloisi will find some joy in Swiggy's debut, and he might want to savour it.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Shares of Swiggy debuted in Mumbai on Nov. 13. Dutch investor Prosus owns 24% of the Indian food delivery company following its initial public offering.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Graphic: Zomato's shares soared in a strong Indian market

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(Editing by Una Galani and Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on shritama.bose@thomsonreuters.com))