Paytm, the Indian digital payments pioneer backed by SoftBank Group, is seeking approval for a $2.2 billion initial public offering that could be India’s largest.
The start-up backed also by Berkshire Hathaway and Jack Ma’s Ant Group plans to raise as much as 166 billion rupees ($2.2bn) from its share sale. The IPO will include an equal amount of new and secondary shares, according to a draft red herring prospectus filed with the regulator on Friday.
Formally called One97 Communications, Paytm hopes to tap the same strong investor demand that’s propping up fellow unicorn Zomato’s hugely popular share sale. That is despite the company reporting Friday a 10 per cent drop in revenue during the year ended March 2021, after intensifying competition from Walmart’s Flipkart and Amazon.com cut its e-commerce and cloud sales by the same amount. Its core payment and financial services arm, however, grew 11 per cent.
Paytm hopes to capitalise on the rising popularity among investors of internet-based consumer companies, after the pandemic fuelled the worldwide adoption of digital technologies. BlackRock and Fidelity International were among the dozens of anchor investors that piled into Zomato’s float, resulting in the company receiving about 35 times more bids than it had expected to sell, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier.
Zomato and Paytm are coming to a market that has already been enjoying blockbuster listings for a few months. About $5.6bn has been raised in initial public offerings on Indian stock exchanges so far in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. UBS Group expects the annual tally to be more than double last year’s $4.6bn.
Paytm was last valued at $16bn, according to researcher CB Insights. If it hits its target, the IPO would be the country’s largest stock market debut ever, surpassing the more than 150bn rupees raised during the debut of state-owned Coal India.
Banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are running the share sale. Paytm may consider a pre-IPO placement of up to 20bn rupees, it said.
Paytm, led by founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has been focusing on ramping up revenue and monetising its services over the past year. It is expanded beyond digital payments into banking, credit cards, financial services, wealth management and digital wallets. It also supports India’s financial payments backbone, the Unified Payments Interface or UPI. Its Paytm Mall, however, has in past years steadily ceded share to Flipkart and Amazon, which are aggressively courting merchants and buyers.
In fintech, Paytm has fended off stiff competition from a swath of global players including Walmart-owned PhonePe, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, as well as Facebook’s WhatsApp Pay. It still has the biggest market share of India’s merchant payments, with more than 20 million merchant partners in its network. Its users make 1.4 billion monthly transactions, according to numbers in a recent company blogpost.
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner Thabet Al Reef, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Blue Diamond, Pat Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6.30pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Shoja’A Muscat, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner Heros De Lagarde, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Winner Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
if you go
The flights Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, and Royal Jordanian all offer direct, three-and-a-half-hour flights from the UAE to the Jordanian capital Amman. Alternatively, from June Fly Dubai will offer a new direct service from Dubai to Aqaba in the south of the country. See the airlines’ respective sites for varying prices or search on reliable price-comparison site Skyscanner.
The trip
Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.
Gifts exchanged
- King Charles - replica of President Eisenhower Sword
- Queen Camilla - Tiffany & Co vintage 18-carat gold, diamond and ruby flower brooch
- Donald Trump - hand-bound leather book with Declaration of Independence
- Melania Trump - personalised Anya Hindmarch handbag
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Skoda Superb Specs
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The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
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Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
The%20specs
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