Mobile payments firm Paytm is all set for its Rs 18,300 crore initial public offering, which will happen between November 8 and 10 at a price band of Rs 2,080-2,150, the company said in its Red Herring Prospectus issued on October 27.
This is touted to be India’s largest market debut, a record that was previously held by Coal India, which raised Rs 15,000 crore over a decade ago.
The company which had planned a Diwali listing got delayed on its plans by over a week following a delay in approval by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Paytm is currently India's second most-valuable internet company, last valued at $16 billion when it raised a billion dollars in November 2019 led by T Rowe Price, Discovery Capital and D1 Capital.
The public offer is expected to take the company's valuation to $20 billion.
Moneycontrol on October 27 reported that the company's red herring prospectus (RHP) is expected to come out as early as this week.
The company which was earlier planning to raise Rs 16,600 crore revised the amount to Rs 18,300 crore following an increased investor interest.
As per the document, while the fresh issue is Rs 8,300 crore the offer for sale consists of Rs 10,000 crore which includes Rs 402 crore of aggregate amount of equity shares offered by founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Others who will be selling their stakes include Ant Financials at Rs 4,704 crore, Alibaba at Rs 784 crore, and SAIF III Mauritius Company at Rs 1,327 crore.
Paytm had filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator in July.
It will be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.
The company is expected to use the primary proceeds for growth including customer and merchant acquisition and investing in new business initiatives, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships.
Paytm had clocked revenue of Rs 3,186 crore for FY 20-21 vs Rs 3,540 crore in the previous year. It narrowed losses to Rs 1,701 crore during the same period from Rs 2,942 crore in the previous year.
One97 Communications, the parent firm of Paytm, was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2000. It began its journey as a value-added service provider, and evolved over the years to become an online mobile payments firm.
The company spent almost a decade catering to the VAS market. It made its first pivot with the launch of a mobile recharge platform in 2010. Until then, customers used to pay cash to get their phones recharged by offline retailers. Over 90 percent of Indian telecom users had pre-paid connections in India at the time. Ten years later, the market hasn't changed much.
For the three months ended June 2021, Paytm has seen a huge uptick in its revenues driven by its payments and financial services offerings.
The company’s revenue was up by 46 percent to Rs 948 crore in the first quarter of financial year 2022 from Rs 649 crore in the like period of the previous financial year. Paytm’s losses stood at Rs 3,82 crore for the three months ended June 2021.
Currently, Paytm is betting big on its lending vertical. And as per its RHP in the second quarter of financial year 2022, it disbursed 2.84 million loans.
Interestingly, this is not One97's first attempt to go public. In 2010, the company, which then used to provide value-added services (VAS) for telecom customers, planned to raise Rs 120 crore ($28 million, basis a decade-old conversion rate) through an IPO. It had to cancel its plan because of market volatility.
The company currently has around 10,266 employees.
Also read: Paytm's path to IPO: Tracking a 2-decade journey of pivots
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