Paytm claims to be worth $10 B as it completes secondary share sale
Financial services player Paytm on Monday announced the completion of its secondary share sale, which now values the company close to $10 billion.
The secondary sale gave existing and former Paytm employees the opportunity to liquidate their ESOP units. It also offered various family offices and few western long-hold funds to gain entry on the cap table with this round.
However, Paytm did not disclose if there are new entrants to the cap table.
A company statement said over 200 former and existing Paytm employees across various business verticals including business, technology, product, administration, human resources, sales and finance have liquidated as much as Rs 500 crore worth of shares through the secondary sale till date.
An ESOP is a benefit plan to enable employees to acquire shares in a company.
According to the company, Paytm calculates the eligibility to award ESOPs based on an individual's contribution to the company, long-term potential, and duration of employment.
Just last month, news reports said Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had pledged close to 5 percent of his personal holdings in Paytm Mall for employee stock options or ESOPs.
According to a Times of India report, this move was expected to add close to $50 million worth of stock to the ESOP pool, accounting for 10 percent of the total company, Paytm Mall.
Last month, Indian e-commerce unicorn Flipkart had announced it had completed a $100 million ESOP buyback. Flipkart had then said that 3,000 of ecommerce major’s past and present employees had participated in the activity.
Even Citrus, when merging with PayU, had offered its employees the option to sell their stock, helping them making significant gains from the activity.
