Paytm, India’s leading digital payment service is backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Ant Group Co. the digital payment service provider announced that it will seek shareholders’ approval next week for an initial public offering with an initial fundraising target of 160 billion rupees ($2.2 billion). This will be the largest ever IPO emerging from the country of India.
If Paytm managed to get a green-lit during a shareholder meeting slated for July 12, then the digital payments startup will have the option of raising that target to as much as roughly $2.6 billion. According to sources, the decision which the board of the company came to is that they will start smaller and could increase the size depending on investor momentum.
Paytm, formally known as One97 Communications Pvt, will, after this IPO will bring the shareholding of Ant Group below 25%. This may be due to the fact of ongoing feud between China and India, and India’s initiative of being more self-dependent.
For now, there is now price 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. After this IPO, the hold of Ant Group over Paytm will decrease significantly and will make Paytm increase its value in the Indian market even further.
According to Bloomberg’s reports, the startup has hired several banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to handle the matter.
