- Company may scale up fundraising depending on market interest
- Paytm is backed by SoftBank, Berkshire Hathaway and Ant Group
India’s Paytm will seek shareholders’ approval next week for an initial public offering with an initial fundraising target of 160 billion rupees ($2.2 billion), according to people familiar with the plan, setting in motion the process for the country’s largest ever debut.
If green-lit, the digital payments startup will have the option of raising that target to as much as roughly $2.6 billion, per regulatory guidelines. The board has decided to start smaller and could increase the size depending on investor momentum, the people said, asking not to be named as deliberations are not public.
Formally known asOne97 Communications Pvt, Paytm is backed bySoftBank Group Corp.,Berkshire Hathaway Inc.andAnt Group Co.
The IPO will bring the shareholding of Ant Group below 25%, the people said. While a price won’t be specified in the initial documents, the company is expected to offer an equal amount of new and secondary shares and its valuation could eventually land between $24 billion and $30 billion, they added.
The startup has hired several banks includingJPMorgan Chase & Co.andGoldman Sachs Group Inc.to handle the matter, Bloomberg News previouslyreported.