Shares of digital financial services firm One97 Communications, which owns Paytm, rose 5% to Rs 655.30 on the BSE in intraday trade on Monday, following reports that telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal is eyeing a stake in the company.

Over the past two sessions, the fintech company’s shares have soared 8% in an otherwise weak market. Paytm was quoted 3% higher at Rs 642 at 9:28 am, while the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.22%. About 3.2 million shares changed hands over the counters of the NSE and BSE in the first 13 minutes of trading.

Indian telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal is seeking a stake in Paytm by merging its financial services arm into the fintech giant’s payments bank, Bloomberg reported.

The report said that Mittal seeks to merge Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank through a share deal and buy shares in Paytm from other holders. The report added that negotiations are at an early stage, and Airtel and Paytm may be unable to reach an agreement.

Meanwhile, another Bloomberg report cited people familiar with the matter as saying Ant Group was considering selling some of its stake in the operator of Indian fintech firm Paytm to keep its stake within a prescribed threshold.

Bloomberg reported that the Chinese fintech giant has been discussing options to reduce its stake in One 97 Communications Ltd after share buybacks passively increased it.

Earlier this month, Paytm completed share buybacks worth Rs 849.83 crore at an average price of Rs 545.93 per share.

According to a regulatory filing, the company bought back 15.57 million shares at Rs 702.65 to Rs 480.25 each.

Paytm has surged 25% over the past month, outperforming the market on improved financial results for the October-December quarter (Q3FY23). The S&P BSE Sensex inched up 0.11%. Moreover, it has gained nearly 50% over the past three months, while the benchmark index has fallen 5%.

In Q3FY23, Paytm’s Ebitda, a measure of operating profit before ESOP cost margin, improved to Rs 310 crore. The company said it achieved operating Ebitda profitability three quarters earlier than expected, driven by revenue growth across its businesses, disciplined cost management and operating leverage.