Jack Ma-backed Ant Group looking to reduce stake in Paytm

The Ant Group of China is looking to offload some of its shares in Indian fintech company Paytm so as to keep its shareholding within the prescribed limit.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Ant Group, the financial services subsidiary of Alibaba, has been discussing options to reduce its stake in Paytm parent One97 Communications after its share percentage increased passively due to share buybacks.

One97 Communications had announced a share buyback programme of as much as Rs 850 crore in December, which led to an increase in the shareholding of Ant Group.

The Jack Ma-backed company held 24.86% stake in One97 Communications as of December, but its holdings rose above 25% after the share buyback reduced the number of outstanding shares. Ant now has a 90-day window to pare its stake after the completion of the buyback on February 13.

Paytm is now witnessing a resurgence in its share price with some brokerage houses expecting it to continue with this momentum.

Meanwhile, India’s leading telecom operator Airtel is looking at the possibility of a merger of a business unit and getting a stake in Paytm.

According to reports, the telecom operator will merge its Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm Payments Bank and in turn get a stake in the fintech company.

This could see additional capital infusion by Airtel into Paytm, according to reports. The talks are in preliminary stages.