Shareholders and investment banks representing the Ant Group and Softbank had earlier approached telecommunications tycoon and Bharti Airtel founder-chairman Sunil Mittal with an offer to buy their stakes, the report said.Ant has a 90-day window to cut its stake after the completion of the buyback on 13 February, the report added. One 97 announced a buyback of around Rs. 850 crores in December.Earlier this month, Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba Group sold its remaining 3.3 percent direct stake in One97 Communications for 1,378 crores through an open market transaction.
Source: CNBC- TV 18The digital financial services firm has been under pressure to turn profitable ever since its dismal listing in November 2021.
The stock has declined around 70% since listing and tumbled 60% last year. However, Paytm shares have rebounded about 40% from its record low in November as it shows signs of turning profitable.
The Noida-based company narrowed its third-quarter loss after a drive to add customers boosted revenue, it said in an exchange filing this February.Last year, Paytm said it would become free cash flow positive in the next 12-18 months.
Once India’s most valuable startup Paytm has never traded above its IPO price of 2,150 since its listing in November 2021 and had the worst first-year share plunge among large IPOs over the past decade. The firm’s backers include SoftBank and China’s Ant Group.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, as per Bloomberg data.
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