Indian telecommunications tycoon Sunil Mittal wants to merge his financial services division with Paytm’s payments bank in order to buy a stake in the fintech behemoth.
Mittal wants to buy Paytm shares from other stakeholders and merge Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank through a stock sale. The negotiations are still in their early stages, so a deal might not be struck, according to reports.
The firm is completely focused on its organic growth journey, according to a Paytm official, and is not engaging in any such negotiations.
Paytm has clarified the situation, saying that it is “completely focused on our strong organic growth trajectory” and that it is “not engaging in any such negotiations.” A representative for Mittal-owned Bharti Enterprises Ltd. declined to address market rumors in the meanwhile.
In recent months, Paytm, originally One 97 Communications Ltd., has displayed signs of profitability and has recovered by approximately 40% from its record low in November. After concentrating on client acquisition, the company reported in an exchange filing this month that its Q3 loss had been reduced and that this had resulted in an increase in revenue.
Despite this, Paytm had the worst first-year share decline among major IPOs over the past ten years, and its shares have never traded above their IPO price of Rs 2,150 since being listed in November 2021. China’s Ant Group Co. and SoftBank Group Corp. are among its investors.
According to exchange filings, Mittal’s six-year-old payments bank had 129 million clients and made money in the year ending March 31, 2022.
