BNP Paribas On Block Deal Spree, Sells Shares Of Paytm & Policybazaar

Fintech major Paytm and insurtech giant Policybazaar saw a major sell-off during the last trading session of this week as financial services company BNP Paribas sold shares of the two startups via multiple block deals. 

As per the date available with the exchanges, BNP Paribas Arbitrage offloaded 42.15 Lakh shares of Paytm on Friday (January 25) in a bulk deal pegged at INR 317.7 Cr. The financial services firm sold shares of One97 Communications at INR 753.75 apiece. 

A majority of the sold shares, 40.8 Lakh, were picked up by British hedge fund Marshall Wace at the same price. 

On the other hand, the financial services major also sold more than 7.66 Lakh shares of Policybazaar on Thursday. The shares were sold at INR 922.95 apiece in two block deals, translating to a total of INR 70.75 Cr. 

Societe Generale picked up most of the shares sold by BNP Paribas. It bought nearly 5 Lakh shares of PB Fintech in an INR 46.1 Cr deal. Meanwhile, Marshall Wallace acquired more than 2.66 Lakh shares via its two different funds in a deal worth INR 24.61 Cr. 

Besides, Societe Generale also offloaded more than 86 Lakh shares in Zomato on Thursday  in a deal worth INR 117 Cr. These shares were also acquired by Marshall Wace. 

According to market experts, the block deals in new-age tech stocks were likely a part of the wider sell-off by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the broader Indian equities market. 

Swastika Investmart’s Santosh Meena told Inc42 that the upcoming Union Budget, financial results of major companies slated next week, and apprehension ahead of the US Fed meeting kept the markets on tenterhooks during the week. 

“Anticipation of the Fed policy meeting next week, likely retaining the existing rate, triggered increased US bond yields and FII selling in the market,” said head of research at Geojit Financial Services, Vinod Nair.

The development  comes at a time when Paytm has witnessed stake sales by multiple institutional investors in the recent months, including early backers SoftBank, Ant Group and Berkshire Hathaway. These stake sales were led by considerations around profit booking as the stock has largely been on an upswing in the past one year. 

Meanwhile, Paytm continued to narrow its loss in Q3 FY24. The company’s net loss declined 43% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 222 Cr during the quarter. Operating revenue also jumped 38% YoY to INR 2,850 Cr in the quarter ending December 2023.

On similar lines, Policybazaar too has been cutting down its losses and expects to report a profit in Q3. The insurtech startup witnessed an 89% YoY decline in net loss to INR 21 Cr in Q2 FY24. 

Shares of PB Fintech ended the last trading session 3.82% lower at INR 887.75 on the BSE, while Paytm closed Thursday’s session 1.36% higher at INR 762.90.