India's largest IPO Paytm makes history

New Delhi: Paytm's Rs 18,300 crore IPO was oversubscribed 1.89 times on the last day of India's biggest share sale on Wednesday, making it one of the country's most valued companies.

The initial public offering of Paytm's parent company One97 Communications Ltd received bids for 9.14 crore equity shares against the offer size of 4.83 crore shares, according to information available from stock exchanges.

While the portion set aside for retail investors was oversubscribed early, institutional buyers including FIIs flooded the share sale with offers on Wednesday, seeking 2.79 times the number of shares reserved for them.

Non-institutional investors such as wealthy individuals and companies purchased about 24 per cent of the shares offered to them.

Paytm is now set for a bumper listing next week and will be one of India's most valued companies.

Its large issue size meant that the sheer value of its retail size is much larger than that seen in recent internet IPOs like that of Zomato or Nykaa, combined.

According to stock exchange data, Paytm IPO saw surplus demand rushing in as qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), domestic institutional investors and mutual funds bid on the final day of the IPO offer.

QIBs, who were less than enthusiastic in participating in the IPO in the initial two days sought 7.36 crore shares against 2.63 crore reserved for them. Of this, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sought 7.28 crore shares.

Retail investors lapped up for 1.66 times the 87 lakh shares reserved for them.

Paytm had priced its shares in a price band of Rs 2,080-2,150 per share, valuing the company at Rs 1.39 lakh crore at the upper end of the price band. This was greater than previous miner Coal India's Rs 15,000 crore a decade back.

Ant Group-backed Paytm last week closed India's largest anchor round, raising Rs 8,235 crore from 100 institutional traders, together with the federal government of Singapore, BlackRock International Funds, Canada Pension Plan Funding Board and Abu Dhabi Funding Authority.

Launched by a son of a school teacher from a small town Aligarh nearly a decade ago as a platform for cellular recharging, Paytm grew rapidly after ride-hailing agency Uber listed it as a fast cost possibility. Its use swelled in 2016 when a ban on high-value forex financial institution notes in India boosted digital funds.