After China’s Alibaba sold a 3.1% stake in Paytm, Morgan Stanley and hedge fund Ghisallo Master Fund LP picked up a stake in the Indian digital payment services provider.
Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte – ODI acquired 54.95 lakh shares in the Paytm operator, while hedge fund Ghisallo bought 49.8 lakh shares in the company via open market transactions, according to bulk deals data available on exchanges.
Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce, however, offloaded 1.92 crore shares in Paytm at an average price of Rs 536.95 per share.
| Date | Symbol | Security Name | Client Name | Buy / Sell | Quantity Traded | Trade Price / Wght. Avg. Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-Jan-2023 | PAYTM | One 97 Communications Ltd | ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED | SELL | 192,00,000 | 536.95 |
| 12-Jan-2023 | PAYTM | One 97 Communications Ltd | GHISALLO MASTER FUND LP | BUY | 49,80,000 | 534.80 |
| 12-Jan-2023 | PAYTM | One 97 Communications Ltd | MORGAN STANLEY ASIA (SINGAPORE) PTE. – ODI | BUY | 54,95,000 | 534.80 |
Shares of Paytm closed down around 6% on Thursday when reports of Alibaba cutting its stake surfaced. However, they closed up over 3% at Rs 560.50 on Friday after Morgan Stanley and Ghisallo bought a stake.
Paytm, also backed by China’s Ant Group, had raised $2.5 billion in its initial public offerings — one of India’s biggest last year. However, the company made a dismal debut following concerns over its high valuation and an uncertain path to profitability.
The stock has lost 74% from its IPO price of Rs 2,150.
In November last year, SoftBank Group sold a 4.5% stake in the company worth $200 million. SoftBank had a 17.5% stake in Paytm as of Sept 30.
Valuations of several new-age companies, including Nykaa and PB Fintech, have taken a beating in the private market as the craze for startups wanes, possibly delaying their plans to go public. Given the low risk appetite in the Indian equity markets at present and the highly uncertain economic scenario in the medium and long term, investors are reluctant to invest in startups.
Beauty startup Nykaa’s shares, for instance, started trading at a premium of over 82% when they listed on Nov 10, 2021, at Rs 2,054 per share, but are currently trading at Rs 147.4 per share.
Shares of PB Fintech, which operates the online insurance platform Policybazaar and credit comparison portal Paisabazaar, also debuted at Rs 1,150 on listing and are now trading at Rs 462.50 per share. Zomato, which had an issue price of Rs 76 per share, is now trading at Rs 53.45 per share.