Antfin likely to sell 3.6% stake in Paytm via block deal

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Chinese fintech giant Antfin is likely to sell 3.6 percent stake or 2.3 crore shares of fintech company Paytm via block deal today, reported Bloomberg.

The floor price for the deal is likely to be at a discount of Rs 880.10 per share. Paytm shares on August 24 closed 0.15 percent lower at Rs 904.20 apiece on BSE.

Earlier on August 7, the company informed the exchanges that Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of One 97 Communications Limited and Antfin have entered into an agreement where Sharma will purchase a 10.3 percent stake in Paytm.

As per the filing, an overseas entity 100 percent owned by Sharma called Resilient Asset Management BV will acquire the stake in Paytm from Antfin through an off-market transfer. On closing of this transaction, Sharma’s shareholding in Paytm will increase to 19.42 percent, whereas Antfin’s shareholding will reduce to 13.5 percent.

Also read: Vijay Shekhar Sharma goes all in, is now the largest shareholder in Paytm

Exit of shareholders

In February this year, Alibaba Group sold its remaining stake in Paytm for about Rs 1,378 crore or $167.14 million through a block deal. Ant Group, part of Alibaba Group which also owns Antfin, had also sold Zomato stake late last year for $200 million.

Alibaba had exited online grocery firm Bigbasket back in 2021. In mid-2022, Alibaba had also exited Paytm Mall. Alibaba has been under Chinese government pressure due to his criticism of the Chinese government's interference.

Not just Antfin, but other Paytm shareholders have been exiting the company. SoftBank has been offloading shares regularly over the last couple of months in small tranches through open market transactions and largely at a profit as Paytm’s share price has been above Rs 830 during the period, which was the cost price for the Japanese investor. The sale in July generated over $200 million for the Japanese investment.

SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Ltd, a SoftBank arm, had sold 13,103,148 shares between February 10, 2023, and May 8, 2023, which represents approximately 2.07 percent of the total shareholding for about $120 million.

Softbank's exits had to do with the pressure on the Japanese technology investment firm to pare its losses.

Chinese shareholding concern

After the Doklam skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese armies, the Indian government has been blocking most of the Chinese investments into India. It had also banned more than 200 Chinese apps over the last three years.

The government and the central bank have concerns regarding the large Chinese shareholding in Paytm, a major player in India's financial services space. It is believed that this could be one of the reasons why a couple of approvals are still pending with the regulator.