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Paytm tipped for India’s biggest ever IPO

Indian digital giant Paytm, which owns Ticketnew and Insider.in, is set for the country’s biggest ever flotation at a staggering $3bn.

The board of parent company One97 Communications has reportedly agreed to the plan that could see Paytm debut in the final quarter of 2021. Paytm is yet to make an official statement on the development, but the size of the initial public offering (IPO) is widely reported to be around Rs 22,000 crore – or approximately $3bn.

Paytm is one of India’s leading digital groups, with interests in payments, banking and insurance, as well as its high-profile ticketing subsidiaries.

The company is looking to raise about $3bn, at a valuation of between $25-$30bn. It will file the IPO prospectus with India’s markets regulator, Securities Exchange Board (SEBI), to kick off the listing process in July. News of the IPO timeline and the financial details was first reported by Bloomberg last week, citing a person familiar with Paytm’s plans.

Business Line reports that existing shareholders including Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, Elevation Capital and Ant Financial are also likely to dilute their shareholding as part of the IPO. SoftBank is reportedly looking to sell shares of as much as $1.5bn in the IPO.

Paytm acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, the online ticketing and events platform backed by event management company Only Much Louder (OML) in 2017. Insider.in has signed lucrative partnerships with Indian Premier League (IPL) teams over the years as well as ticketing concerts and events.

Paytm acquired cinema tickets operator TicketNew from Chinese conglomerate Alibaba in May 2018 in a deal thought to be worth up to $40m.

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