Antfin To Sell 3.6% Stake In Paytm

Antfin (Netherlands) Holdings is set to sell 2.27 Cr shares of Paytm, or about a 3.6% stake on Friday (August 25), the fintech giant’s filings showed.

The venture arm of the Chinese conglomerate Ant Group will sell the stake at INR 880 apiece, slightly lower than Thursday’s close of INR 904.4

The move comes as Antfin transferred the ownership of a 10.3% stake in the fintech giant to founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Resilient Asset Management via an off-market transaction.

Under this transaction, Sharma would gain the voting and ownership rights that come with the stake, while Antfin would retain the economic rights of the stake via non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

Antfin, owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, held a 23.79% stake in Paytm at the end of the June 2023 quarter. The company has been trimming its ownership in Paytm to comply with regulatory norms. Under SEBI guidelines, no ‘professionally managed’ company can have a single stakeholder with a 25% stake in the company.

The move comes after Ant Group’s senior vice president Douglas Feagin stepped down from his position as a non-executive, non-independent director of Paytm this February.

Paytm has outperformed expectations in 2023, which led to Bernstein starting coverage with an ‘outperform’ tag. As a result, Paytm’s share price rallied to its highest level in the past 18 months, hitting a share price of INR 939.00.

Paytm reported a 44.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline in its consolidated net loss at INR 358.4 Cr in the June quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Helped by the growth in the loan distribution and payments business, the fintech player’s operating revenue jumped 39% to INR 2,342 Cr in Q1 FY24 from INR 1,680 Cr reported in Q1 FY23.

Shares of the fintech giant opened at INR 915.00, significantly higher than Thursday’s close of INR 904.4. Overall, Paytm’s shares are up 70% since the start of 2023.