Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma becomes its sole Significant Beneficial Owner

The Founder and CEO of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has become its sole Significant Beneficial Owner (SBO) now that Antfin‘s shareholding reduced to 9.90 per cent in its parent company, One97 Communications Limited (OCL). Antfin, which recently pared its stake in OCL from 23.79 per cent to 9.90 per cent, is no longer a SBO of the company.  

Antfin’s total shareholding in Paytm has significantly reduced from 23.79 per cent in the last few weeks following its sale of 10.3 per cent of its stake to Resilient Asset Management B.V., an overseas entity 100 per cent owned by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. This was followed by the sale of another 3.6 per cent in block deals. 

With Resilient Asset Management B.V. now holding a 10.3 percent stake in OCL, Sharma’s shareholding in OCL, both direct and indirect, has risen to 19.42 per cent. This makes him the sole SBO of the company.  

However, Paytm remains a professionally managed company with no identified promoter. As per Indian laws, for anyone to be identified as a promoter, the shareholding has to be above 25 percent. 

According to some analysts, Sharma becoming the SBO will remove the Chinese overhang from Paytm’s stock. An earlier report by BofA Securities said that buying of this stake by Sharma “indicates his confidence in the story with a ‘skin in the game’ approach”.  

This reduces the risk of some other strategic investor coming who would have a major stake like Sharma’s, it added.