Sebi gives nod to Rs 16.6K-cr Paytm parent IPO; set to be India’s largest

One97 Communications, the parent entity of Paytm, has received approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to launch the $2.2 billion (around Rs 16,600 crore) initial public offering (IPO), the largest in India’s corporate history.

The firm, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2000, is planning to raise Rs 8,300 crore by issuing fresh stock and the same amount in an offer for sale that will result in some pre-IPO investors offload shares.

According to sources, the company is likely to list its shares on the BSE and the NSE by mid-November. The company is looking at a valuation of Rs 150,00 crore to Rs 165,000 crore from the IPO. The company was valued at around Rs 120,000 crore when it last raised funds two years ago.

As of FY21, its total revenue from operations stood at Rs 3,186 crore from 114 million annual transacting users and had facilitated 7.4 billion transactions.

The largest IPO, so far, was from Coal India, which raised Rs 15,000 crore over a decade ago.

In July this year, the company announced that all Chinese nationals on the board of Paytm had been replaced by US and Indian citizens, while there is no change in the existing shareholding. Alipay representative Jing Xiandong, Ant Financial’s Guoming Cheng, and Alibaba representatives Michael Yuen Jen Yao (US citizen) and Ting Hong Kenny Ho have ceased to be directors of the company.

The primary market witnessed a host of unicorn listings in 2021. Zomato listed on the BSE and National Stock Exchange in July. Nykaa will launch its IPO later this month while IPOs of PolicyBazaar, MobiKwik, Pine Labs and Delhivery are in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, as per a PTI report, FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, which runs Nykaa, has fixed a price of Rs 1,085-1,125 a share for its Rs 5,352-crore initial public offering, which will open on October 28.