On Thursday, the largest Chinese e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, sold a 3.1% share in Paytm, an Indian company that handles digital payments.
The deal will almost cut half Alibaba’s 6.26% shareholding (as of September 2022). It comes after Paytm decided in December to buy back $103 million worth of its own shares to make up for its lackluster stock performance. The closing price of Paytm’s stock in 2022 was 60% less than in January.
According to a source who spoke to Reuters, the stake was sold at 536.95 rupees per share, a 7.3% reduction from the most recent close, and Morgan Stanley, a US investment bank, served as the exclusive placement agent for the block sale.
When Paytm went public in 2021 as the largest IPO in Indian history on the Mumbai Stock Exchange (BSE), it raised $2.5 billion. However, the company’s shares fell 27% on the first day of trading.
