Ant Group likely to sell about 4% stake in Paytm worth up to Rs 2,066 crore

New Delhi: Financial Services company Ant Group is likely to offload up to 4 per cent stake worth about Rs 2,066 crore in fintech firm One97 Communications, the owner of the Paytm brand, according to sources.

The sale will be executed through bulk deals on BSE and NSE on May 13, and involves the sale of up to 25.5 million shares of Noida-based Paytm, they added.

Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group.

Investment banking firms Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Pvt Ltd and Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt Ltd are the placement agents for the stake sale, as per the sources.

Ant group through its affiliate Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV will pare the stake at a floor price of Rs 809.75 apiece, representing a discount of about 6.50 per cent to Paytm’s closing price of Rs 866.05 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday, as per a term sheet seen by PTI.

At the end of the March quarter, Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV owned a 9.85 per cent holding in digital payments firm Paytm, as per shareholding data pattern on the BSE.

On August 25, 2023, Ant Group divested a 3.6 per cent stake in Paytm for Rs 2,037 crore.

Alibaba group firm Antfin on August 16, 2023, transferred its 10.3 per cent stake in One97 Communications to the fintech firm’s founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The deal turns One97 Communications into a majorly Indian-owned firm from being majorly owned by Chinese entities. The stake sold by Antfin was transferred to Sharma and his family members owned overseas entity Resilient Asset Management BV.

Alibaba and Ant Financial have invested $851 million in Paytm since 2015.

The company had started selling shares in the stock markets after One 97 Communications was listed in November 2021.