Paytm IPO: Here's What You Should Know About The $2.3 Billion Proposed Issue

The proposed $2.3 billion IPO is said to be the third-biggest public listing in dollar terms after state-run miner Coal India Ltd in 2010 and Reliance Power Ltd in 2008.

New Delhi: One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of Indian payments firm Paytm,  is expected to file a draft prospectus as early as 12 July for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) aiming to raise $2.3 billion.

Earlier, it was reported that Paytm, the country’s largest online payments company was aiming to raise as much as $3 billion (Rs21,700 crore) by selling shares to the public by the end of this year.

As per the sources of the report in the Hindustan Times, the money will be raised through sale of new Paytm stock as well as a secondary offering of shares at an expected valuation of $24 billion to $25 billion with an option to raise the amount at a later stage if required.

The proposed $2.3 billion IPO is said to be the third-biggest public listing in dollar terms after state-run miner Coal India Ltd in 2010 and Reliance Power Ltd in 2008.

Paytm backed by China’s Alibaba and Japan’s SoftBank is waiting for shareholder approval at the EGM to sell up to Rs12,000 crore ($1.61 billion) in new stock and have an option to retain an over-subscription of up to 1 per cent , Reuters earlier reported. The IPO will reduce the shareholding of Ant Group below 25 per cent, as per the report.

So far, almost $3.6 billion worth of IPOs hit the market in the first half of 2021, up from $1.1 billion at the same time last year, as per Refinitiv. Sona BLW Precision Forgings raised $757.4 million in its June IPO, which remained as one of the biggest listings this year.

The online payment company has hired JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, ICICI Securities, Goldman Sachs, Axis Capital, Citi and HDFC Bank for the IPO. 

Paytm began its operations as a bill-payments, mobile recharge platform in 2010. It went on to launch a mobile wallet in 2014. The company witnessed massive growth over a period of time and aiming to acquire market share across a spectrum of financial services including mutual funds, wealth management, stock trading and insurance services. It has also applied for a New Umbrella Entity (NUE) license, as part of a consortium comprising Ola, IndusInd Bank, Zeta, Suryoday Small Finance, among others. It has also applied for a general insurance license.