Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm, one of the highest valued Indian technology companies, has thrown its hat in the ring for a domestic initial public offering (IPO), said two people aware of the development.
The Softbank, Alibaba and Berkshire Hathaway backed payments company has appointed investment banks and lawyers to start working on its Indian IPO, the people cited above said.
“The company has appointed law firm Khaitan to start work on its proposed IPO. Khaitan will act as the main legal counsel for the company for the IPO. A few other law firms have also been hired to represent the investors in the company. These are early days for the IPO process and the exact details of the share sale, how much the company will raise for its growth and which investors will sell shares and how much, is still to be worked out,” said the first person cited above, requesting anonymity.
On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Paytm could raise as much as $3 billion in the proposed IPO, which will make it the largest Indian IPO ever. The agency reported that investment banks Morgan Stanley, Citibank and JP Morgan have been brought on board to manage the IPO.
Bloomberg added that Paytm is eyeing a valuation of $25 billion-$30 billion for the IPO.
Paytm joins other leading technology companies such as Zomato, CarTrade, PolicyBazaar and Mobikwik, which are going for a domestic IPO. While Zomato has filed for a ₹8,250 crore IPO, CarTrade has filed draft papers for a ₹2,000 crore initial share sale. PolicyBazaar and Mobikwik are yet to file draft prospectus for their share sales.
“Paytm opting for a domestic IPO will be a big boost for the domestic capital markets. The markets regulator has also been encouraging these companies to go for a domestic IPO and has eased certain requirements for these companies with regards to their paperwork,” said the second person cited above, also requesting anonymity.
A Paytm spokesperson declined to comment on the development.
This article was first published on livemint.com