Indian digital giant Paytm, which owns Ticketnew and Insider.in, is seeking approval from shareholders for its planned initial public offering (IPO), set to be the country’s largest with intent to raise $3bn.
The Alibaba-backed firm plans to sell 120 billion rupees ($1.61bn) in new shares plus a potential one-per-cent for over-allotment.
The company has organised an extraordinary shareholder meeting (EGM) for July 12 in Delhi, where it will seek IPO approval from the likes of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, Elevation Capital and Ant Financial.
In the firm’s EGM notice, it also said Paytm will propose that its founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, be relieved from his role as the company’s “promoter”.
The company, which has hired banks JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, ICICI Securities and Goldman Sachs for the IPO, is looking to raise about $3bn, at a valuation of between $25-$30bn.
The digital payments firm will reportedly file the IPO prospectus with India’s markets regulator, Securities Exchange Board (SEBI), to kick off the listing process in July.
Paytm is one of India’s leading digital groups, with interests in payments, banking and insurance, as well as its high-profile ticketing subsidiaries.
It 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.
Image: Sasha India / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Edited for size
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