INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Paytm has priced its shares at the top of the range for its Rs 18,300 crore initial public offering (IPO), a prospectus showed on Friday,
even though the country's largest public issue was received with less enthusiasm than those of other tech firms.Paytm, a payments company
that markets an all-in-one app, priced its 8.51 crore-share issue at Rs 2,150 each
It had flagged a price range of Rs 2,080-2,150 per share for the deal.The success of the IPO is seen as a precursor for more big-ticket
public floats to come in the next year."It was expected that Paytm would price the deal at the top-end as the company's anchor-allotment
was oversubscribed by more than 10-times," said Shifara Samsudeen, Equity Analyst at LightStream Research, who publishes on research
platform Smartkarma.The company, formally known as One97 Communications, which had already raised $1.1 billion from anchor investors, has
received $2.64 billion worth of bids for the remaining 4.84 crore shares on offer, or 1.89 times, according to stock exchange data published
on Wednesday.Paytm, which offers a range of services from banking, shopping, movie and travel ticketing to gaming, is expected to make its
debut on bourses on November 18, the company said in its prospectus."Paytm's valuation is expensive but we think there will be some
listing gains," Samsudeen said.Paytm is backed by big investors like Ant Group and SoftBank's Vision Fund and its anchor investors
included big names like BlackRock and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board."Qualified institutional buyers that have bought into the company
know what they are investing in, they will not create panic on day one
They are not looking for one day gains," said Arun Kejriwal, founder of an independent research firm.Marquee investors are trimming their
Ant Group, which had a 28 per cent holding in Paytm, is selling shares worth Rs 4,704 crore and will be left with a 23 per cent stake
SoftBank's Vision Fund is cutting its stake by 2.5 percentage points to 16 per cent with Rs 1,689 crore share sale.
