SoftBank Sells 2% Stake In Paytm In Series Of Open Market Transactions The market value of the total sale was not declared in the company's regulatory filing, but reports said that it could be worth around $120 million

Softbank on Thursday has announced that it has sold 2% of its stake in One97 Communications, parent firm of Paytm, in a series of open market transactions since February 2023 to comply with market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) takeover regulations.

According to the company's stock exchange filings, "SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Limited disposed of an aggregate of 13,103,148 equity shares of One 97 Communications Limited in a series of disposals undertaken between February 10, 2023 to May 8, 2023, with the disposal on May 8, 2023 breaching the 2% threshold specified in Regulation 29(2) of the SEBI Takeover Regulations."

The statement also revealed that SoftBank's 13.24% stake in Paytm has now been reduced to 11.17%. The market value of the total sale was not declared in the regulatory filing but reports said that it could be worth around $120 million.

As per available media reports, Apart from SoftBank, Ant Group, Alibaba Group Holding are also among the biggest shareholders of Paytm. The fintech company in the March quarter narrowed its losses to INR 167.5 crore from INR 762.5 crore in the same period of the last year. One97 Communications narrowed its loss to INR 1,776.5 crore in the financial year of 2023 from INR 2,396.4 crore in the previous fiscal.

In addition, ET had earlier reported that Ant and SoftBank were likely to offload shares gradually in the market as part of their plan to exit Paytm, adding that after China's Alibaba Group had sold 3.3% stake in Paytm through the open market in an INR 1,378 crore deal, Alibaba affiliate Ant Group was also said to be in talks for selling shares in the company through a secondary block deal.