Vijay Shekhar Sharma led Paytm is eying India's largest initial public offering (IPO) to raise about Rs 21,800 crore as it plans to list on the country's bourses in November. Paytm's parent company One97 Communications Pvt Ltd is targeting a valuation of around $25 billion from the IPO. Paytm's IPO launch could turn out to be one of the most anticipated market debuts and is likely to coincide with the Diwali festival.
The Paytm board will meet on Friday to formally approve the IPO plan, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. However, the digital payment giant has not given any official statement on the matter yet.
As of now, state-owned Coal India's IPO worth Rs 15,000 crore, issued in 2010, stands as the largest offering in India. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc and JP Morgan Chase & Co will reportedly manage the Paytm IPO.
The IPO process will eventually start in late June or July. The IPO debut will be a mix of new and existing shares to comply with the Centre's regulations of floating 10 per cent shares in two years and 25 per cent in the five years.
The company has around 150-200 million active users, and its last round valuation was $16 billion. Ant Financials is the largest investor in Paytm, holding a 40 per cent stake. Other big backers of Paytm are SoftBank Group, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, AGH Holdings, SAIF Partners, T Rowe Price, and Discovery Capital.
Its subsidiaries are Paytm Money, an investment platform; Paytm First Games, a gaming and stay-at-home entertainment platform; and Paytm Insurance, which is an authorised brokerage.
Also read: Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, other mobile wallets to be interoperable from April 2022