Paytm Founder and Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma will acquire an additional 10.3% stake in the company from Antfin (Netherlands) to become the biggest shareholder in the mobile payments and financial services company. 

Shares of Paytm surged as much as 11% because the move boosted investors’ confidence in the company. At 12:20 pm, the stock was trading at Rs 850, a jump of 6.7% from the previous closing price on the National Stock Exchange.

According to the exchange filing on August 7, Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV will transfer ownership and voting rights of 6.53 crore shares of Paytm to Resilient Asset Management BV through an off-market transfer. Vijay Shekhar owns a 100% stake in Resilient Asset Management. 

Resilient will issue Optionally Convertible Debentures (OCDs) to Antfin in consideration for the acquisition. The filing added that the 10.3% stake is valued at $628 million or Rs 5,196 crore per the stock’s closing price on August 4. 

Following the transaction, Sharma’s total shareholding in the company, direct and indirect, will rise to 19.42%, making him the majority shareholder of Paytm. While, Antfin, a subsidiary of China’s Ant Group Co, will cease to be the largest shareholder in Paytm, with its shareholdings reduced to 13.49%.

Paytm will continue to be a professionally managed company with no identifiable promoter since Sharma will continue as Managing Director and CEO.

Paytm shareholders have been constantly exiting their stake in the company. Alibaba Group sold its remaining stake in Paytm in February 2023 for about Rs 1,378 crore or $167.14 million through a block deal.

SoftBank has been offloading shares regularly in small tranches over the last couple of months through open market transactions, with the latest sale in July generating over $200 million. 

One of its subsidiaries, SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Ltd, also sold approximately 2.07% or nearly 1.31 crore shares in the company between February and May 2023 for a total consideration of about $120 million.