China’s Ant Group is considering selling part of its stake in Indian fintech firm Paytm to keep its shareholdings within stipulated limits.
reported that bloombergAlibaba’s financial services subsidiary, Ant Group, is discussing options to reduce its stake in Paytm’s parent company, One97 Communications, after a share buyback passively increases its stake.
One97 Communications announced an Rs.850 crore share buyback program in December, which increased Ant Group’s shareholding.
The Jack Ma-backed company owned 24.86% of One97 Communications as of December, but after a share buyback reduced the number of outstanding shares, its ownership exceeded 25%. . Ant has a 90-day grace period after the buyback is complete on February 13th.
![Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/wordpress/2018/10/Vijay-Shekhar-Sharma.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm
Paytm is now witnessing a rebound in its share price, and some brokerages hope the momentum will continue.
Meanwhile, India’s leading telecom operator, Airtel, is considering a business unit merger and a possible stake in Paytm.
According to reports, the telecom operator plans to merge Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm Payments Bank and acquire a stake in the fintech company.
According to reports, this could see an additional capital injection into Paytm by Airtel. Talks are in preliminary stages.