Bharti, Paytm stake sale talks collapse, no deal in the works: Sources

Bharti Airtel and Paytm have failed to reach an agreement over stake sell, according to sources privy.

The telecom giant had reportedly shown interest in acquiring a stake in the country's leading digital payments platform. The development was first reported by Bloomberg last week. However, as per Moneycontrol sources, no deal is currently in the works.

Bharti Enterprises founder Sunil Mittal was seeking to fold Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank in a stocks deal and also seeking to buy Paytm shares from other holders.

As per sources, Paytm management declined to give up management control. The fintech giant didn’t see a strategic alliance in the payments business due to differences in business model, they said.

"While we don't typically comment on market speculation, we can confirm that we remain fully focused on our strong organic growth journey and are not involved in any such discussions," a representative for Paytm said.

Once India’s most valuable startup Paytm has never traded above its IPO price of 2,150 rupees since its listing in November 2021.

The company’s backers include Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and China’s Ant Group Co.

Mittal’s six-year-old payments bank had 129 million customers and had turned profitable in the year to March 31, 2022, exchange filings show.

Paytm is growing its product offering to attract more customers, seeking to convince investors of its earnings potential. Eight brokerages have either a buy or overweight recommendation on One 97 Communications, with a consensus 12-month price target of Rs 944.64, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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