Is Adani in negotiations to buy a portion of Paytm with Vijay Shekhar Sharma? This is what Paytm said

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is allegedly in negotiations to buy a portion of One97 Communications, the company that runs the problematic Paytm app.

In order to "finalize the contours of the deal," CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma reportedly met with Gautam Adani at Adani's Ahmedabad headquarters, according to a TOI story.

According to the allegation, Adani was also interacting with West Asian funds in an attempt to get them to invest in One97 Communications.

Adani's intention to get into the digital payments and e-commerce sectors

The Adani Group's foray into the fintech industry, if a transaction materializes, is consistent with previous media reports indicating the group's intentions to penetrate India's rapidly expanding e-commerce and digital payments markets.

The business is expected to seek for a license to operate on UPI, a digital payments network that is presently dominated by Google Pay and PhonePe, according to a story published in Financial Express. Furthermore, the business is in negotiations with banks to complete preparations for the introduction of a co-branded credit card.

The corporation is reportedly talking about the idea of providing online shopping via the ONDC, which is supported by the Indian government, according to the article.

It is anticipated that these additional services would be included into Adani One, the company's consumer app, which was released in late 2022. Bookings for flights and hotels are among the travel-related services now offered by the app.

Sharma's Paytm shareholding

Sharma now holds around 20% of One97 Communications, which is valued at Rs 4,218 crore at the Tuesday closing price of Rs 342 per share.

He individually owns 9% of Paytm and indirectly owns 10% via Resilient Asset Management, a foreign company. One97's filings with stock markets show that Sharma and Resilient are both listed as public shareholders.

The private equity firm Saif Partners (15%), Jack Ma-founded Antfin Netherlands (10%), and the company's directors (9%), are among One97's other notable owners.

Paytm clarifies

Paytm has refuted these media allegations, characterizing them as conjectural, and said that it is not in talks with the Adani Group.

In an exchange statement, Paytm said, "We hereby clarify that the aforementioned news item is speculative as well as the company is not engaged in any discussions in this regard."