Image credits: twitter.com/Paytm , bulbandkey.com
An Initial Public Offer(IPO) of the digital wallet company may be around the corner as the board members of Paytm have given the company the permission to raise around Rs 22,000 crore by going public. The IPO is expected to come in the October-December quarter of the current financial year.
The digital payments company which became hugely popular after demonetization in 2016 is aiming for getting an enterprise value of Rs 2 lakh crore. Paytm expects to be able to raise Rs 20,000- 21,000 crore through the offering. If all goes according to the plan for the company, the IPO will be one of the largest in the country. Further discussions regarding the process including Paytm’s valuation will be held at another board meeting on Friday.
According to sources, some of the existing investors will be lowering their stakes in the company. Currently, the Chinese Alibaba’s Ant Group is the leading investor in the company with a 29.71% stake followed by Softbank Vision Fund(19.63%), private equity firm Saif Partners(18.56%) and Paytm’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma(14.67%) among others.
Founded in 2009 in Noida by Vijay Shekhar Sharma as a digital payment and fintech company Paytm has grown rapidly over the years reaching about 1.4 billion monthly transactions on its payments app. The company received a boost when digital payments began to rise in the wake of the demonetization announced in November 2016. Recently Paytm announced that it has cut its losses by 40% as compared to the previous fiscal and increased its revenue to Rs 3629 crore.