SoftBank’s Stake in Paytm Down to 2.83 pc

Chennai: Japanese investor SoftBank has divested 2.17 per cent stake worth Rs 580 crore in Paytm. With this fifth divestment in this fiscal, SoftBank’s stake in Paytm has come down to 2.83 per cent.

Paytm, which has been facing regulatory hurdles, saw SoftBank divesting 1,37,84,787 equity shares in a series of disposals between January 23 and February 26, as per a regulatory filing. This brought down the holdings from 5 per cent to 2.83 per cent.

SoftBank had a 17.5 per cent stake in Paytm in September 2022 and has been reducing its stake for over a year. SoftBank has already sold shares worth Rs 3800 crore in the current fiscal year. The disposals happened in May, July and December. With the latest transaction, the disposal sums up to Rs 4,380 crore.

The RBI had imposed a set of restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank over non-compliance and regulatory concerns. The business restrictions are set to impact Paytm’s different business verticals related to the payments bank. Later, Vijay Shekhar Sharma stepped down from his position as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of Paytm Payments Bank.

SoftBank has been on a stake-selling spree in companies that filed IPOs in the past two to three years. It has exited completely from PolicyBazaar while SoftBank’s Singapore entity also divested entirely from Zomato.