Alibaba sells remaining stake at India’s Paytm as it continues to exit market

Alibaba sells remaining stake at India’s Paytm as it continues to exit market

By Leah 2 years ago

Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce Personal Ltd bought 21.43 million shares of A person 97 Communications, the mother or father business of Paytm, at 642.74 rupees apiece, in accordance to Friday facts from India’s Countrywide Inventory Trade (NSE). The offer is worthy of about 13.77 billion rupees ($167 million), according to CNN calculations.

In January, Alibaba marketed about 3% of Paytm for $125 million, chopping its holdings from 6.26%, dependent on NSE info.

With Friday’s offer, it has sold its total immediate stake in Paytm.

Shares in One 97 Communications plunged just about 8% on Friday. It bounced back a little bit on Monday morning. Alibaba and Paytm didn’t right away react to CNN’s request for remark.

‘India’s Alipay’

Established in 2010, Paytm is India’s premier payment platform, with more than 300 million registered prospects and in excess of 20 million merchants. It’s backed by huge name buyers this kind of as Ant Team, an affiliate of Alibaba, Softbank (SFTBF) and Warrent Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA).

Alibaba and Ant Team together made a “strategic” investment decision in Paytm in September 2015, in an extension of the preliminary financial commitment produced by Ant in February of that yr.

At that point, Alibaba said the financial investment would greatly enhance its capacity to faucet chances in India’s quick-rising cell commerce market and electronic finance market. Paytm and Ant Group had been performing on “synergies” since Ant built the original expenditure, the company claimed.

Ant Group, which operates China’s leading digital payment app Alipay, continues to be Paytm’s greatest shareholder with a 25% stake, in accordance to the most new knowledge from Refinitiv Eikon.

India's IPO boom has rapidly turned to bust
Alibaba has progressively exited its investments in India, soon after New Delhi imposed restrictions in 2020 that made it difficult for Chinese investors to make investments in Indian companies.
China and India share a disputed border that has extended been the resource of friction concerning New Delhi and Beijing, with tensions escalating sharply in June 2020, when hand-to-hand battling involving the two sides in the Himalayas resulted in the fatalities of at least 20 Indian and 4 Chinese troopers.
Final December, Indian and Chinese troops clashed all over again together the border, which at the time was the initial acknowledged incident in between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers in approximately two a long time — even though video clip afterwards emerged suggesting a earlier unreported clash occurred in 2021.
In early 2021, Alibaba sold a important stake in BigBasket, an on the internet grocery retailer, to Indian conglomerate Tata Team. In May 2022, Alibaba and Ant Group offloaded their whole stake in Paytm Mall, the e-commerce system of Paytm. In November 2022, Ant Group reportedly bought a stake of about 3% in Zomato for $200 million, in accordance to Reuters.
Alibaba itself has also been beneath force from domestic regulatory crackdowns and financial headwinds. A authorities marketing campaign aimed at reining in the country’s technological know-how giants, coupled with a weak financial state, has sharply slowed profits development at the corporation, battered its share value and manufactured business enlargement more challenging.

Last year, Alibaba posted flat income advancement for the to start with time given that heading public in 2014.

CNN’s Simone McCarthy contributed to this report.

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