Board has approved IPO proposal, Paytm tells stakeholders

One97 Communications that owns and operates mobile payments firm Paytm has finally made its decision to go public official. In a letter addressed to its stakeholders and employees having stock options, the company has said it has received in-principle approval from its board to go for an initial public offering.

The proposed IPO is likely to have a combination of fresh issue of equity shares as well as an offer for sale of equity shares by existing shareholders of the company.

"You may, in your sole discretion, participate in the offer by offering either all or a part of the equity shares held by you (which are eligible to be offered in the Offer) in the offer for sale," Paytm said in an offer for sale document addressed to the stakeholders. 

Moneycontrol has seen a copy of the documents which was shared with the parties concerned on June 7.

However, the price band of the IPO has not been decided yet. The company plans to decide that either at the time of filing the Red Herring Prospectus or prior to the IPO opening for subscription.

According to sources, Paytm is expected to list in the market later this year, at a valuation of $25-$30 billion.  The company was last valued at $16 billion when it raised $1 billion from Softbank and Ant Financial in 2019.

Ahead of its IPO, it has reported a revenue of Rs 3,186 crore for the financial year 2020-21 against Rs 3,540 crore in the previous year.

Paytm also narrowed down its loss at Rs 1,701 crore during the period under review. Its previous year’s loss stood at Rs 2,942 crore.

Paytm has been trying to acquire market share across a spectrum of financial services offerings by launching mutual funds, wealth management, stock trading and insurance services.