Japan’s SoftBank exits Paytm, sells remaining 1.4 percent stake

This come few months after Softbank fully sold its stake in another India bet—PB Fintech, the parent of insurance marketplace PolicyBazaar.

Japan’s Softbank has fully exited its position in One97 Communication, the parent entity of Paytm.

Per the June shareholding data, SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Limited (Softbank) sold off its remaining 1.4 percent share in the fintech major.

SoftBank has been offloading Paytm shares regularly since November 2022 through to last month. The Japanese investor’s stake in Paytm was brought down to 1.4 percent as of March 2024, compared with a roughly 18.5 percent stake around the time of the payments company’s initial public offering in 2021.

This come few months after Softbank fully sold its stake in another India bet—PB Fintech, the parent of insurance marketplace PolicyBazaar, where it made profits.

SoftBank had invested close to $200 million in PB Fintech during its initial days, and is expected to have earned approximately $650 million in returns on its total investment in the insurance aggregator, per report.

Treeline, UBS increase stake

Meanwhile, Treeline, a prominent hedge fund based out of Singapore and Hong Kong and UBS Principal Capital Asia— expanded their shareholding in Paytm to 1.18 and 1.08 percent, respectively.

The overall Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) shareholding declined by 2 percent from 39.77 to 37.77 percent.

Shareholding of domestic mutual funds have grown by 0.65 percent to 6.80 percent in Q1 FY 2025, led by Mirae Mutual Fund and Nippon India Mutual Fund.

The retail shareholding went up by 1.30 percent from to 16.56 percent, sequentially. As a result domestic institutional investors witnessed an increase in stake by 0.29 percent from 6.86 percent to 7.15 percent.