Paytm's parent One97 Communications Ltd. said on Tuesday that it is not part of any negotiations where major stakeholders are looking to offload their holdings.
The comments came after the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange sought clarification from the company over a media reports that China's Ant Group Co. and Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp. are planning to sell Paytm shares in the open market.
"We are not aware of any material impact of this news article," Paytm said in its In its clarification to the exchanges. "There is no sequence of events available and no disclosure is required to be made" under SEBI regulations.
Ant Group is the largest stakeholder in One97 Communications with 25.47%, followed by SoftBank Group with a 13.24% stake. Founder Vijay Shekar Sharma holds a 9.13% stake in the company, according to the shareholding data available on the BSE.
Bloomberg reported that Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s Sunil Mittal is looking to acquire a stake in One 97 Communications to merge his Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm Payments Bank. The report also claimed that Ant Group is planning to sell its stake in Paytm to meet a required shareholding threshold.
On Tuesday, Paytm shares opened at Rs 632.4 on the BSE in comparison to Monday's close of Rs 634.55. It then reached an intraday high of Rs 633.5. However, the stock closed 5.89% lower at Rs 597.2, compared to the benchmark Sensex's 0.55% decline.
Among the analysts tracking Paytm, nine have a 'buy' rating for the company and three have a 'hold' rating, according to Bloomberg data. The consensus 12-month target price is Rs 928, representing a 55.4% increase.
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