Paytm IPO Opens Today: All Eyes On India’s Biggest Tech IPO

India’s biggest tech IPO opens today as Paytm parent One97 Communications’ public offering will start accepting bids from retail and institutional investors. The much-awaited INR 18,300 IPO will close on November 10, followed by a stock market listing for Paytm on November 18, 2021.

Paytm’s offer includes a fresh issue of INR 8,300 Cr worth of shares and an offer for sale (OFS) of INR 10,000 Cr. The IPO will open at a price band of INR 2,080-INR 2,150. The company is aiming to raise the money at a valuation of close to $20 Bn. At that size, will be the biggest tech IPO in Indian startup history.

Paytm had received SEBI approval for its IPO in late October and the Delhi NCR-based fintech decacorn increased IPO offer size to INR 18,300 Cr, from its initial offer of INR 16,600 Cr, as seen in its RHP.

Founded in 2000, Paytm parent One Communications operate a payments gateway and payments bank, besides offering insurance and investment services, ecommerce, ticket booking, consumer lending, merchant payments among other verticals. Overall, Paytm claims to have 337 Mn registered consumers and over 21.8 Mn registered merchants, as of June 30, 2021.

On the eve of the IPO window opening, Paytm’s shares premium in the grey market slipped to INR 125. Paytm had announced that it plans to use proceeds of the fresh issue to grow its business lines and acquire new merchants and customers, which includes acquisitions of fintech startups that can add to its service and product offerings.

The fintech giant saw its overall revenue take a hit amid the pandemic as it fell 9.9% from INR 3,540.77 in FY20 to INR 3,186.8 in FY21 on a consolidated basis. Its losses narrowed 42% to INR 1,704.01 Cr from INR 2,943.32 Cr in the same period.

The company’s diverse business model has meant that it has had to bring in domain experts and key vertical leaders across various revenue streams. Paytm’s recent hires for key personnel and internal promotions since 2018 have come with strong domain experience in financial services and building scaled-up business verticals.

Days before the IPO, last week, the company raised INR 8,235 Cr ($1.1 Bn) from anchor investors in what was India’s largest anchor round. The anchor round was oversubscribed 10x by 74 investors, with 21 investors putting in bids higher than INR 100 Cr.

Global mutual funds – ​​Blackrock, Vanguard and Fidelity; emerging markets dedicated investors – Standard Life Aberdeen, UBS, RWC; and global tech / fintech-focused funds like Sands Capital, Alkeon, Marshall Wace, Viking, Citadel participated in the anchor round.

Earlier, Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma had said that international investors are more keen to invest in Indian startups through all possible routes in 2021 than ever before, be it through public offering or private investments.