Chinese company Alibaba has sold 3.16% direct stake in digital financial services firm One97 Communications, which operates the Paytm brand, for about Rs 13,600 crore in a block deal, according to sources.
With this deal, Alibaba has sold its entire direct stake in the company. Alibaba had 6.26% direct stake in Paytm as of December 2022. Of this, it had sold 3.1% stake in January. The remaining 3.16% was sold on Friday.
“Alibaba has sold its complete direct stake in Paytm in the block deal today,” a source aware of the development said.
Besides Alibaba, its group firm Ant Financial holds around 25% stake in Paytm.
Another source said that around 2.8 crore shares were sold in a block deal which includes a direct stake in Alibaba while others may have sold for profit- booking.
Prior to this, Jack Ma’s founded firm had sold its stakes in Zomato and BigBasket. An email query sent to Paytm and Alibaba did not elicit any reply in the regard.
In the quarter ending December, Paytm recorded a consolidated net loss of Rs 392 crore. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 778.4 crore in the same period a year ago.
Revenue from operations jumped about 42% to Rs 2,062.2 crore during the quarter, from Rs 1,456.1 crore in the year-ago period.
On Friday, Paytm’s share price on BSE was down over 8% to Rs 654.25.
