Alibaba's Antfin transfers 10.3% stake to Paytm chief Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba group firm Antfin has transferred its 10.3 per cent stake in One97 Communications to the fintech firm's founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, according to a regulatory filing.

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

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

"We, Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V., one of the shareholders of One 97 Communication Limited, hereby file the disclosure in the format prescribed under Regulation 29(2) of SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011, with respect to disposal of 65,335,101 equity shares of the Company..." the filing said on Wednesday.

 

The transaction was completed on August 14, which brought the total stake of Antfin to 13.49 per cent from 23.79 per cent earlier, the filing said.

The deal makes Sharma family the biggest shareholder in the company with a 19.55 per cent stake.

The stake divested by Antfin has been transferred to Sharma and his family members owned overseas entity Resilient Asset Management BV.

Resilient Asset in return will issue debt instrument OCDs (optionally convertible debentures) to Antfin.

Sharma held a little over 9 per cent stake in Paytm before the deal.

Pursuant to this transaction, there would be no change in the management or control of Paytm, since Sharma would continue as Managing Director and CEO, and the existing board would continue as it is.

Further, there is no nominee of Antfin on the board of Paytm now.

The Antfin transaction took place at a price of around Rs 795 per share, which is around one-third of Paytm's IPO listing price of Rs 2,150 apiece. While there was no cash involved in the deal, the total value of shares transacted was about USD 628 million, according to Paytm.