SoftBank, Ant Group likely to sell Paytm stake through block deal: Report

China’s Ant and Japan’s SoftBank are likely to sell their stake in Indian digital payments firm Paytm on the open market after talks with Bharti Airtel’s founder failed, reports Economic Times.

Representing Shareholders and Investment Banks ant And softbank previously contacted Bharti Airtel Founder-Chairman Sunil Mittal offered to sell his stake in One 97 Communications, which owns PaytmAccording to the report on Monday, quoting people having knowledge of the matter.

Ant is the largest shareholder in the firm, holding about 25 percent, and SoftBank holds about 13 percent, the report said.

Paytm has been under pressure to turn a profit since its disappointing listing in late 2021, and its shares have fallen below their initial public offering prices as global backers sold shares in the company.

China’s Alibaba Group exited Paytm earlier this month by selling its remaining stake in Paytm for about Rs 1,000 crore. 1,378 crores. SoftBank had earlier sold a 4.5 percent stake in Paytm for about $200 million (roughly Rs. 16,580 crores) through a block deal.

Alibaba’s exit This came days after Paytm posted its first quarterly operating profit as a listed firm, nine months ahead of its target.

Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce sold 21.4 million shares of Paytm for Rs. The stock traded at Rs 642.74, a 9 per cent discount to Thursday’s close, data from the NSE stock exchange showed. Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte bought 5.42 million shares of Paytm for Rs. 640, the data showed.

The ET report said that the talks with Mittal did not make much headway and Bharti is currently not holding talks on the issue.

SoftBank, Ant Group, Paytm and Bharti Airtel did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comments.

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