Alibaba Sells Stake in Indian Digital Payment Platform Paytm

On February 11, knowledge from the Bombay Stock Exchange confirmed that Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce has offered its remaining stake in Indian digital funds agency Paytm for about 13.78 billion rupees ($167.14 million) by way of a block deal.

Earlier, on January 13 this yr, Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce offered 3.1% of its Paytm shares at a worth of 536.95 rupees per share, with a transaction quantity of $125 million.

This signifies that Alibaba has offered all of its Paytm’s shares, totaling 6.26%, because the February 10 deal. However, it’s value noting that Ant Group, an vital affiliated firm of Alibaba, has not diluted its Paytm shares at the moment totaling 25%.

Paytm is named “Alipay” in India. In greater than 550 cities in India, the system makes use of a blue QR code to serve native customers and might be seen in every single place, reminiscent of gasoline stations, subway stations, parking tons, chain shops, shops, and numerous on-line purposes.

As early as 2015, Ant Group started to take a position in Paytm, and helped it enter the quick lane of improvement via “cooperative shareholding and technology export”. Ant Group turned the most important shareholder of Paytm, holding 25% of the shares. In addition, Alibaba held about 6% of the corporate’s shares. Looking again at Paytm’s progress historical past, the arrival of India’s cell Internet period, the Modi authorities’s money elimination, and the nation’s unbalanced monetary service system, have all develop into catalysts for Paytm’s speedy improvement.

Six years later, in November 2021, Paytm was formally listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, elevating greater than $2.5 billion, which made it the most important IPO mission in Indian historical past. According to the prospectus, as a populous nation that’s selling digitalization, the prospect of the digital cost market in India is promising. Only about 25% of Indian folks use cell cost, and there are nonetheless 1 billion potential clients ready to be found in the nation.

From 2014 to 2020, Alibaba hooked up nice significance to the Indian market and invested closely in over 9 know-how giants in India, involving funds, e-commerce, authorities affairs, leisure, journey and different fields. Until August 2020, Reuters reported that Alibaba had suspended its funding plan in Indian corporations, and wouldn’t pour in new funds to increase its funding in India for no less than six months. It additionally deliberate to cut back its shares in invested corporations.

SEE ALSO: Alibaba and Ant Financial Offload Stakes in India’s Paytm Mall

In lower than two years, Alibaba has offered a number of funding tasks in India. In early 2021, Alibaba offered a majority stake in on-line grocer BigBasket, which was taken over by Tata Group. In May 2022, Paytm Mall, the most important e-commerce firm in India, introduced that, with the strategic focus shifting from conventional bodily e-commerce to B2B export and open community digital commerce, Alibaba, its largest shareholder, and Ant Group, the fourth largest shareholder, each withdrew from the corporate. In November 2022, Alipay Singapore offered a 3.07% stake in Zomato, an Indian-listed take-out platform, on the open marketplace for 16.31 billion rupees.

Sign up right this moment for five free articles month-to-month!