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One 97 Communications, which operates digital payments firm Paytm, is witnessing a rise in its share price both on the NSE and the BSE, as Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank and China’s Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, have discussed selling shares in Paytm through a secondary stock deal, said a report by The Economic Times.

Since the markets opened, the company’s share price has been on the rise, fluctuating from 2% to 3%.

According to the report, Ant and SoftBank are likely to offload shares gradually in the market as part of their plan to exit the payments firm.

Jack Ma-founded Alibaba had exited the online payments unicorn recently, but Ant group (formerly Ant Financial) is still the single largest shareholder in the financial services firm with about 25% stake. SoftBank, Elevation Capital, and Paytm CEO and Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma own around 13%, 15% and 14% respectively, in the Noida-based firm.

Meanwhile, telecom operator Airtel is looking to merge Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm Payments Bank and in turn get a stake in the fintech company, according to some reports. However, an ET report said talks between Paytm and Airtel are not on.

Recently, Alibaba group sold a 3.16% direct stake in One97 Communications for about Rs 1,360 crore in a block deal. The Chinese firm had also offloaded its stakes in Zomato and Bigbasket earlier.

In the quarter ending December 2022, 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 February 24, Paytm’s scrip closed at Rs 623.25 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange.