New Delhi: Paytm, India’s largest online payments company, plans to raise as much as $3 billion (Rs 21,700 crore) by selling shares to the public by the end of this year, the media reported.
One97 Communications India Ltd, which runs the Paytm service, is in talks to hire investment banks for its initial share sale in India, and a few law firms have already been appointed to help with regulatory aspects, the people said on condition of anonymity. The payments company is likely to raise as much as $2.5-3 billion, they said.
The company is in talks with investment banks, including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and JP Morgan, for its proposed initial public offer (IPO), said one of the four people who is directly aware of the discussions, reports HT.
One97 Communications, backed by marquee investors such as SoftBank, Ant Financial and Berkshire Hathaway, could potentially seek a valuation of $22 billion to $24 billion (around Rs 1.74 trillion) from the India listing, a second person said.
The company has raised more than $4.4 billion in equity funding so far. Ant Financial holds almost 30% in One97 Communications, followed by Japan-based Softbank (20%), Elevation Capital (18.56%), and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma owning almost 14%, in the company he founded back in 2010.
According to a May 27 report from research firm Bernstein, the next phase of growth for Paytm is expected to be led by delivering credit tech products to a large number of consumers and merchants on its platform. The firm believes that non-payments revenue will be led by credit tech.
