By Next Week Paytm To File IPO Aims At $2.3 Billion

One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of Indian payments firm Paytm, will file a draft prospectus as early as 12 July for a domestic initial public offering (IPO) that seeks to raise $2.3 billion. It is expected they will file an IPO after their AGM meeting next week, may be the same day as well. The money will be raised via sale of new Paytm stock as well as a secondary offering of shares at an expected valuation of $24 billion to $25 billion with an option to raise the amount at a later stage if required, the people said, declining to be named as the matter is not public. Paytm’s proposed $2.3 billion IPO will make it India’s third-biggest public listing in dollar terms after state-run miner Coal India Ltd in 2010 and Reliance Power Ltd in 2008.

Paytm, which counts China’s Alibaba and Japan’s SoftBank as backers, is seeking shareholder approval at the EGM to sell up to ₹12,000 crore ($1.61 billion) in new stock and have an option to retain an over-subscription of up to 1%, Reuters reported previously. The IPO will bring the shareholding of Ant Group below 25%, people aware of the issue said. While a price won’t be specified in the initial documents, the company is expected to offer an equal amount of new and secondary shares and its valuation could eventually land between $24 billion and $30 billion, they added. There were $3.6 billion worth of IPOs in India in the first half of 2021, up from $1.1 billion at the same time last year, according to Refinitiv. The level so far this year is the highest since 2008, the data showed.