paytm share buyback: Paytm completes share buyback worth Rs 850 crore

Digital financial services firm One97 Communications, which operates under the Paytm brand, on Tuesday said it has completed buyback of shares worth Rs 849.83 crore at an average price of Rs 545.93 per share.

According to a regulatory filing, the company bought back shares in the price range of Rs 702.65 to Rs 480.25 apiece.

“The company bought back an aggregate of 1,55,66,746 equity shares utilising a total amount of Rs 849.83 crore which represents 99.98% of the maximum buy-back size. The price at which equity shares were bough back was dependent on the price quoted on the stock exchanges,” the company said.

The Paytm board had approved buyback of shares worth Rs 850 crore on December 13, representing 6.67% of the total paid-up share capital between December 21, 2022 to February 13.

During the buyback period, Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba sold its entire direct stake in the company in two tranches.

However, the company’s group firm Ant Financial continues to hold around 25% stake in Paytm and remains the biggest shareholder of the digital financial services firm.

Stake saleChina’s Alibaba Group sold 3.3% stake in Paytm parent One97 Communications through the open market on Friday and mopped Rs 1,378 crore.

Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd sold 2,14,31,822 shares at Rs 642.74 apiece. This was at a steep discount of 9% to Thursday’s close price of the stock.

Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd had sold 3% stake in January too, which reaped Rs 1,031 crore.

Through this affiliate, Alibaba held 6.3% stake as of December. The Chinese retailer holds close to 25% stake in the Paytm parent through another affiliate Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V.

Alibaba has been offloading stakes in listed new-age technology companies in India amid a sharp erosion in the value of its investments. The Chinese multinational had offloaded a 3% stake in online food delivery aggregator Zomato earlier in November.

Paytm’s Q3 net loss had narrowed to Rs 392 crore from Rs 779 crore a year ago. “With our focus on growth and keeping a tight vigil on operational risk and compliances, I am very confident that we will soon achieve our next milestone of becoming a free cash flow generating company,” Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had said after the announcement of the quarterly results last week.

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