Alibaba group’s affiliate Ant Group and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp may offload stakes in One97 Communications (Paytm) in the open market after talks with Bharti Airtel failed, the ET reported on Monday.
A Bloomberg report had earlier suggested that Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairperson of India’s second-largest telecom operator Airtel, was looking to buy a stake in Paytm by merging his financial services unit into the Paytm’s payments bank.
Mittal, as per the Bloomberg report, was seeking to merge Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank in a stocks deal and was keen on buying Paytm shares from other holders, the report said citing sources. The sources, however, had noted that the talks were in the early stages and Airtel and Paytm might not reach a deal.
Alibaba Group exited Paytm, earlier this month, by selling its remaining stake in Paytm for about Rs 1,378 crore ($166.20 million). SoftBank had also sold a 4.5 per cent stake in Paytm through block deals for about $200 million, Reuters reported.
Shares of Paytm, which hit a high of Rs 655.30 earlier today cut intraday gains. The stock was later trading at Rs 639.70, up 2.64 per cent. Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd, on the other hand, were trading at Rs 744.30, down 1.70 per cent.
Paytm shares have rallied 20 per cent in 2023 so far, as the fintech major reported narrowing of consolidated losses Rs 392 crore in the December quarter from a Rs 778.50 crore loss in the year-ago period. Paytm’s revenue from operations rose 42 per cent to Rs 2,062 crore in in the December quarter compared with Rs 1,456 crore in the same quarter last year.
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