Paytm Claims To Be Unaware Of Ant Group, SoftBank Trimming Their Stakes

A day after reports emerged that SoftBank and Ant Group were looking to offload their stakes in Paytm, the fintech major has now shot back saying that it was not part of any such negotiations.

“The Company is not part of any negotiation/events as mentioned in the news report. Accordingly, there is no sequence of events available and no disclosure is required to be made under Regulation 30 of the SEBI Listing Regulations,” Paytm said in its regulatory filings with the bourses.

The listed unicorn added that it was not aware of any information that could have a bearing on the price or volume of the shares of the startup. In response to a clarification sought by the NSE and BSE, the company added that it was not aware of any material impact of the news article on the fintech player.

Under SEBI norms, a listed company has to inform the stock exchanges of any event that may have a bearing on its performance or operations.

This comes a day after reports surfaced that China’s Ant Group and Japanese tech investor SoftBank were mulling a secondary share sale in Paytm. The report added that the two investors had approached telecom billionaire Sunil Mittal and another Indian conglomerate with an offer to buy their shares, according to an ET report.

On Friday, reports also made the rounds that Mittal was looking to merge Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm and was also scouting to buy Paytm shares from other shareholders. Bharti Airtel has reportedly denied any such plans.

Meanwhile, Ant Group has been looking to sell some of its stakes in Paytm to comply with SEBI norms that state that no single entity can own more than 25% of a ‘professionally managed company’. Ant Group slightly went over the prescribed threshold after Paytm concluded its buyback in February.

While Ant Group held a 24.86% stake in Paytm at the end of December 2022, SoftBank held a 13% stake in the fintech major. 

Interestingly, Ant Group’s parent, Alibaba, recently exited the fintech major after selling a 3.1% stake for INR 1,377 Cr, and it could be looking to sell more. Meanwhile, SoftBank, which incurred losses worth $5.8 Bn in the December 2022 quarter, could also be looking to sell some of its stake to pare the losses. 

The matters have been made worse by Paytm’s financial performance, which continues to operate in the red. 

The company’s stock continues to be bogged down by market volatility. Since its debut, Paytm stock has halved in value, wiping off billions of dollars of investor wealth.

Paytm shares closed 1.89% up at INR 608.50 on Wednesday (March 1).