Ant Group sells 3.6% stake in Paytm for Rs 2,037 cr via open market

A subsidiary of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group on Friday sold a 3.6 per cent stake in Paytm for Rs 2,037 crore through open market transactions.

The shares of Paytm's parent One97 Communications was sold by Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV.

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund (MF), Nippon India MF, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte, Bay Pond Partners LP, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, among others, were the buyers of the shares of Paytm.

Antfin offloaded a total of 2,27,54,823 shares in 14 tranches, amounting to a 3.58 per cent stake in One97 Communications, according to the block deal data available with the BSE.

The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 895.2 apiece, taking the combined transaction value to Rs 2,037 crore.

Post the transactions, Antfin shareholding has declined to 20.21 per cent from 23.79 per cent stake in the company at the end of June quarter,

as per shareholding data available with the exchange.

Shares of One97 Communications fell 0.54 per cent to close at Rs 899.30 per piece on the BSE.

Ant Group is part of Jack Ma's Alibaba Group.

Last week, Antfin transferred its 10.3 per cent stake in One97 Communications to the fintech firm's founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The deal turned One97 Communications, which operates under Paytm brand name, into a majorly indian-owned company from being majorly owned by Chinese entities.

However, Antfin will continue to hold the economic rights of the stake that is being transferred to Sharma.

In January this year, Alibaba's affiliate Alibaba Singapore E-commerce divested a nearly 3 per cent stake in mobile payments and financial services company for Rs 1,031 crore.