Six Mutual Funds Fully Exit Paytm Stock, Six Reduce Stake Sharply In February

At least six mutual funds completely divested their holdings in One97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of Paytm, in February, while another six significantly reduced their stakes.

This divestment amounted to over 91 Lakh shares valued at INR 380 Cr, prompted by a decline in the stock price following regulatory interventions by the RBI.

As of now, 18 mutual funds possess Paytm shares worth INR 1,426 Cr, a decrease from January when 24 mutual funds held shares valued at INR 3,384 Cr, Moneycontrol reported.

Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund divested 15.16 Lakh shares, Quant Mutual Fund sold 6.13 Lakh shares, Bajaj Finserv MF disposed of 2.1 Lakh shares, JM Financial MF sold 1.67 Lakh shares, Union MF divested 1.15 Lakh shares and Baroda BNP Paribas MF sold 17,000 shares, completely exiting from Paytm stock.

Motilal Oswal MF led the selling activity by offloading 27.14 Lakh shares valued at INR 113 Cr, followed by Aditya Birla Sun Life and Mahindra Manulife MF, each divesting over 15 Lakh shares worth INR 63 Cr. Additionally, other mutual funds such as UTI, Franklin Templeton, Quant and Nippon, offloaded shares worth approximately INR 47 Cr, INR 29 Cr, INR 26 Cr and INR 16 Cr, respectively.

The RBI on January 31 barred Paytm Payments Bank from taking deposits, credits, or processing top-up transactions in its customer accounts for ‘persistent non-compliances’. The bank had also been barred from processing other banking services like UPI facilities and funds transfers from February 29. However, some of these restrictions were later extended to March 15.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is reportedly expected to grant the third-party application provider (TPAP) licence to One97 Communications by March 15.

The TPAP licence will allow the fintech giant to continue offering Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services to its app users.

Last week, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das also said that the NPCI is expected to soon take a decision on Paytm’s application for the TPAP licence. He added that the central bank’s curbs on PPBL won’t impact nearly 80%-85% Paytm app users.

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