Paytm board grants in-principle approval for around Rs 22,000 crore IPO

Digital payments and financial services firm Paytm has received in-principle approval from the company's board to raise around Rs 22,000 crore through an initial public offer during the October-December quarter this year, according to an industry source.

The company is looking at an enterprise value of over Rs 2 lakh crore for the IPO, which is likely to be discussed at its board meeting scheduled for Friday.

"The board of directors of Paytm has given in-principle approval for the mega IPO planned to be launched in October-December quarter. The company expects to raise around Rs 21,000-Rs 22,000 crore from the IPO. This will also give some of the existing investors to offload some of their stake," the source aware of the development told PTI.

The board meeting of the company was held on Friday.

When contacted, Paytm spokesperson declined to comment.

It is likely to be one of the largest IPOs in India if the company is able to achieve the target as per its plan.

Paytm shareholders include Alibaba's Ant Group (29.71 per cent), Softbank Vision Fund (19.63 per cent), Saif Partners (18.56 per cent), Vijay Shekhar Sharma (14.67 per cent).

AGH Holding, T Rowe Price and Discovery Capital, Berkshire Hathaway hold less than 10 per cent stake in the company.

Paytm claims to be around 30-50 per cent larger than mobile apps in the segment with over 1.4 billion monthly transactions.

The company had reported narrowing of loss by 40 per cent and increase of revenue to Rs 3,629 crore on year-on-year basis in the fiscal year 2019-20.