PAYTM

March 11 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• PAYTM - NPCI REVISES TPAP AND PAYER PSP FEES FOR RUPAY CREDIT CARD ON UPI EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 2026

• PAYTM - TPAP FEE FOR RUPAY CREDIT CARD ON UPI REDUCED TO 6 BPS NON INDUSTRY, 3 BPS INDUSTRY

• PAYTM - CIRCULAR HAS NO IMPACT ON MERCHANT ACQUIRING REVENUE

• PAYTM - CIRCULAR DOES NOT HAVE ANY IMPACT ON MERCHANT MDR

Source text: ID:nBSE1rbhC6

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;;))

By Jaspreet Kalra

MUMBAI, March 4 (Reuters) - Walmart-backed Indian fintech firm PhonePe PHOP.NS, the country's most used payments platform, is aiming to list at a valuation of between $9 billion and $10.5 billion, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

That suggests the IPO will raise about $900 million to $1.05 billion. But even at the top end, the deal would mark a cut from the $12 billion valuation at which PhonePe last raised $100 million in private markets in 2023.

Walmart WMT.N will trim its stake in PhonePe by ‌about 12% in the firm's initial public offering, while Tiger Global and Microsoft MSFT.O plan to exit their stakes, according to the firm's IPO filing.

The three firms will sell around 50.7 million shares in the ⁠offering and PhonePe will not issue any new shares.

PhonePe, which competes with Google Pay and Paytm PAYT.NS in India, filed for its IPO in September and aims to complete the process by April, one of the sources said, although the timeline could shift depending on capital market conditions, including any impact from the Middle East conflict.

Both sources requested anonymity as the discussions are confidential. PhonePe, Walmart, Tiger Global, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The expected valuation of PhonePe, which means "on the phone" in Hindi, and timing of the issue have not been previously reported.

PhonePe's listing would make it India's second-largest fintech IPO, behind Paytm's about $20 billion listing in 2021.

Paytm currently trades at a market capitalization of $7.1 billion.

'MONETISATION REMAINS A QUESTION MARK'

PhonePe has more than 650 million registered users and processed nearly 10 billion of the 21.7 billion transactions on India's unified payments interface (UPI) in January, regulatory data showed. But payments in India remain a low-margin business.

India launched UPI in 2016 and barred companies from charging fees for the instant payment service to spur digital payments and reduce cash use in Asia's No.3 economy.

PhonePe's losses widened to 14.44 billion rupees ($158 million) in the six months ended September 30, from 12.03 billion rupees a year ago, while revenue rose about 22% to 39.18 billion rupees, the firm's IPO filing showed.

Two portfolio managers, who met the company's management in pre-IPO roadshows, said excitement around the country's fintech sector had cooled and that there were lingering questions around PhonePe's ability to monetise its user base - a key reason it may not achieve a valuation closer to its last funding round.

"Monetisation remains a question mark. Active users aren't growing at the same pace so the game is all about upsell and that remains to be seen," one of the portfolio managers said.

Investors also see India's fintech market as overcrowded with little differentiation among players, said a third source, a banker to the issue.

These sources also spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media.

($1 = 92.1730 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra in Mumbai; additional reporting by Gopika Gopakumar in Mumbai; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

((jaspreet.kalra@thomsonreuters.com; +91-8769636545;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Hudson Lockett

HONG KONG, March 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Initial public offerings often lean on growth potential in their sales pitch, but the one made by PayPay looks particularly ambitious. The Japanese payments and credit card provider is selling itself in its U.S. listing prospectus as a future one-stop finance super app. Hitting a $20 billion valuation sought by SoftBank Group 9984.T founder Masayoshi Son will require convincing investors the firm is primed to become much greater than the sum of its parts.

The business, which turned profitable in 2025, does have promise: monthly active users rose more than 10% to 40 million in the year to December 31, with 11 million actively using the company’s credit cards. Its performance over the last nine months of 2025 points to annualised revenue of 371 billion yen ($2.4 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 31, up almost a quarter year-on-year. Pretax net profit margin came in at 21.9% for the nine-month period, up from 12.6% in 2024.

At Son's hoped-for valuation, PayPay would be worth 8.4 times its sales, five times the multiple carried by U.S. peer PayPal PYPL.O—which is itself on the M&A radar of payments firm Stripe, per Bloomberg. It’s logical, then, for PayPay to play up a “broader mission of offering a comprehensive digital finance experience” with presumably juicier margins.

Results from PayPay’s cross-promotion between payments, cards and banking show promise: average monthly transactions by users with both an e-wallet and card stood at almost 67,000 yen in the 2025 fiscal year—nearly triple the users of the app alone—with bank users’ monthly average rising to 136,000 yen. And PayPay’s code payments and cards now account for over 10% of digital payments in Japan, behind the 17% market share of rival Rakuten’s credit card business, Pujance Chan, an equity analyst at Morningstar, estimates.

Chan reckons there is still room for PayPay users to grow, especially if accounts are allowed to merge with those of SoftBank-backed messaging app Line, which boasts over 100 million monthly active users in Japan. Yet Line’s history of large-scale data breaches has raised regulatory hurdles for any such linkup. In India, supervisory concerns have hurt the broader financial ambitions of Paytm of One97 Communications PAYT.NS.

Beyond compliance risk, there is the fact that PayPay’s financial services segment, made up of its banking and securities units, accounted for only 16.3% of consolidated operating profit in the final nine months of 2025. Explaining how the firm can swiftly boost that share without tripping regulatory wires would make a stronger case for its super app ambitions.

Follow Hudson Lockett on Bluesky and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

PayPay, the SoftBank Group-backed Japanese payments app, is set to receive more than $200 million from a group of cornerstone investors, including Qatar Holdings, Visa and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, as part of its U.S. initial public offering, Reuters reported on February 28, citing two unnamed sources.

PayPay filed paperwork for its IPO on February 12. Bloomberg reported on the same day that the firm is seeking a valuation of more than $10 billion, with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son pushing for up to double that amount, according to unnamed sources.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on LOCKETT/ hudson.lockett@thomsonreuters.com))

Feb 10 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• PAYTM - IRDAI RENEWED IRDAI INSURANCE BROKING LICENSE OF PAYTM INSURANCE BROKING

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

** Digital payments platform Paytm PAYT.NS shares up 0.5% at 1,164.7 rupees

** Bernstein ("outperform", 1,600 rupees PT) notes India's surprise move to continue incentives for digital payments as positive for PAYT

** Finance minister revised FY26 allocation for incentives towards India's real-time digital payments system, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to 22 billion rupees, from 4.4 billion rupees

** Earlier, RBI chose not to extend its incentive scheme for digital payments

** Brokerage estimates PAYT could receive an incremental revenue of 800 million rupees in Q4 due to the raised allocation for FY26, which would partially offset the loss of RBI incentives

** 17 analysts rate PAYT "buy" on average, median PT 1,460 rupees - LSEG data

** Stock dropped 12.4% in January

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

((Nandan.Mandayam@thomsonreuters.com; Mobile: +91 9591011727;))

** Shares of Paytm PAYT.NS fall 2.5% to 1,139.20 rupees

** Citi ("buy", cuts PT to 1,375 rupees from 1,500 rupees) says withdrawal of regulatory incentives will weigh on near-term EBITDA

** Fintech beats Q3 profit expectations, on robust growth in financial, payments services segments

** Payments rev, which accounts for roughly 55% of total revenue, rose 19% in Q3; expenses down 2% y/y

** MD and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, named MD and CEO of its payments services unit as well

** PAYT rated "buy" by 17 analysts on avg; median PT 1,475 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** PAYT down 12% so far in Jan

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru)

((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com;))

BENGALURU, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Indian fintech firm Paytm PAYT.NS reported a profit for the third quarter on Thursday, driven by growth in its financial and payments services business while it kept costs under control.

The digital payments firm posted a net profit of 2.25 billion rupees, from a loss of 2.08 billion rupees a year earlier.

(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Janane Venkatraman Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar and Janane Venkatraman)

((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))

Jan 23 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• PAYTM - CLARIFICATION ON PAYMENT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT FUND (PIDF) SCHEME

• PAYTM - AMOUNT OF INCENTIVE FROM RBI UNDER PIDF SCHEME WAS 1.28 BILLION RUPEES FOR SIX MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2025

• PAYTM- IF CURRENT SCHEME NOT EXTENDED OR REPLACED, CO EXPECTS TO OFFSET IMPACT THROUGH COMBINATION OF HIGHER REVENUES, MORE TARGETED SALES EFFORTS

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, Jan 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - PhonePe was an afterthought thrown into Walmart’s WMT.O purchase of a majority stake in Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart in 2018. Now the U.S. retailer led by Doug McMillon is listing the payments giant that boasts some 240 million monthly active customers. It's a business with enormous potential but PhonePe's prospectus published on Wednesday suggests a conservative valuation is merited.

The company boasts an impressive 46% share in transactions passing through India's homegrown bank-to-bank mobile payments system, where its closest competitor is an application owned by Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O. Yet PhonePe's slowing growth and widening losses come as a surprise ahead of its Mumbai initial public offering.

PhonePe's topline will grow 10% to 78.4 billion rupees ($856 million) in the year to the end of March 2026, based on annualising results for the first half of the financial year. That's a sharp slowdown from the 40% growth in the previous full year. On the same basis, net losses are set to grow 67% to 28.9 billion rupees. The company is spending on everything from marketing costs to IT infrastructure.

To profit, PhonePe needs to gradually convert its network of users and merchants into customers of financial products, from loans to insurance and mutual funds. It's a promise that PhonePe is starting to realise. Lending and insurance distribution services generated 11.6% of its revenue from operations in six months to the end of September, up from less than 1% in 2023. But there's still a long slog ahead.

After trimming some of its 72% stake, Walmart will retain a controlling stake in the business. Having a deep pocketed shareholder will comfort incoming owners. Yet a $15 billion valuation, as previously mooted by local media, looks punchy. That would imply a multiple of 18 times PhonePe's sales in the current financial year, compared to 8 times for One 97 Communications PAYT.NS , owner of rival Paytm, which is profitable.

PhonePe's dominance is also a risk. A proposed 30% cap on transaction volumes on India's bank-to-bank small payments system has only been deferred until December and would hurt the company's ability to onboard new users. Paytm achieved a dizzying multiple in its 2021 debut but its shares are yet to recover to their IPO price. After that bruising episode, frothy valuations for payments companies ought to be handled with caution.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Walmart, Microsoft and Tiger Global will sell shares in PhonePe's initial public offering in Mumbai, according to a prospectus for the Indian payments company dated January 21.

The transaction could raise up to 120 billion rupees ($1.31 billion), Reuters reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the transaction.

According to the filing, the IPO will be comprised entirely of existing shares. Walmart currently owns 71.8% of PhonePe. Walmart will remain the controlling shareholder after the offering.

There are eight bookrunners on the deal; Axis Capital, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JM Financial, JPMorgan, Kotak and Morgan Stanley.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/ujjaini.dutta@thomsonreuters.com))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Sept 29 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's financial technology startups are lining up for credit. Among them is Walmart-backed WMT.N payments champion PhonePe, which on Wednesday said it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in Mumbai. A mooted $15 billion valuationlooks punchy, but its shot at grabbing the ultimate fintech prize in the country is half decent.

The U.S. retailer owns about 84% of the startup, which it acquired as part of its 2018 acquisition of e-commerce platform Flipkart. PhonePe's target valuation would imply a multiple of 13 times sales for the year to end March 2026, assuming its topline grows at the same 40% pace as it did in the previous year. That compares to 9 times Paytm-owner One97 Communications PAYT.NS commands among investors.

PhonePe is superior in multiple ways. Though Paytm swung to profit in the June quarter, PhonePe's losses are narrowing and it has faced none of the regulatory heat that has mired its rival. The Walmart unit also enjoys a 46% share in transactions passing through India's homegrown bank-to-bank mobile payments system, where its closest competitor is an application owned by Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google.

Yet simple payment transactions earn no fees in India. To profit, PhonePe needs to gradually convert its 200 million monthly active users and 40 million-strong merchant network into customers of financial products, from loans to insurance and mutual funds.

It's a promise that Paytm is starting to realise. Its revenue from financial services distribution doubled during the year to end June and accounted for 29% of its quarterly topline. PhonePe, by virtue of its bigger share of payments, ought to have a larger database spanning utility bill payments to restaurant outings that it can leverage to decide who is creditworthy.

The upstart will probably churn out a different, slightly lower, class of customer to those chased by India's traditional lenders, including HDFC Bank HDBK.NS and ICICI Bank ICBK.NS. They already have strong digital sourcing engines, however, so there will be some overlap in who they target. And the $72 billion Bajaj Finance BJFN.NS has a formidable grip on the consumer loan market too that's proven hard to break.

Yet if India is to produce anything like a real fintech winner, PhonePe is more than likely to be it.

Follow Shritama Bose on Linkedin and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Walmart-backed Indian fintech firm PhonePe on September 24 said it has confidentially filed for a Mumbai initial public offering.

The company plans to raise around 120 billion rupees ($1.35 billion) through a sale of existing shares, Moneycontrol reported on the same day, citing unnamed industry sources. Walmart, Tiger Global and Microsoft could sell a combined 10% stake in the IPO, the report added.

PhonePe narrowed losses during the year ended March 31 to 17.3 billion rupees ($194.7 million) from 19.96 billion rupees ($225 million) in the previous 12-month period, the company said in a regulatory filing on September 22.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/shritama.bose@thomsonreuters.com))

** Shares of Suryoday Small Finance Bank SURO.BO up 3.3% to 131.5 rupees

** Bank partners with Paytm PAYT.NS to launch Paytm post paid as credit line on UPI, which will offer up to 30 days of interest-free credit

** Stock set to rise most in a session in over a month

** More than 18,500 shares traded, 2.2x its 30-day moving avg

** YTD, SURO down ~6%

(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru)

((Anuran.Sadhu@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8697274436;))

** Shares of Paytm PAYT.NS jump 11% this week, set for the best weekly gain since November

** Stock gains 20% in the last two weeks

** Co's unit received RBI's approval last week to operate as a payment aggregator, lifting a merchant onboarding ban in place since November 2022

** 16 analysts covering PAYT have a "buy" rating on average; median PT is 1,160 rupees , data compiled by LSEG

** Stock up 29% YTD

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar)

((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com))

By Nishit Navin

BENGALURU, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Indian fintech firm PayNearby plans to launch an initial public offering in the next financial year to fund expansion, its chief executive said on Thursday, making it the latest to target a red-hot market that raised record sums in 2024.

India was the world's second-biggest IPO market after the United States in the first half of 2025, accounting for 12% of total proceeds globally, LSEG data shows.

"We have met three merchant bankers and are in the process of identifying the one to go ahead with for the IPO. Then we will begin the process of filing the draft red herring prospectus," CEO and Managing Director Anand Kumar Bajaj said in an interview.

Indian fintech giants such as Paytm PAYT.NS, PhonePe and BharatPe dominate the market with payments and lending, but PayNearby takes a different route by building a vast network of neighborhood retailers to deliver digital services.

The company provides financial services to retail stores, thereby enabling them to offer cash withdrawal, remittance, bill payment and other services to their local communities and expects revenue to grow about 10% in the current fiscal year.

It reported gross revenue of about 3 billion rupees ($34.9 million) and profit of 120 million rupees in the year ended March 2025.

PayNearby, which has partnered with 1.2 million retailers, plans to add 500,000 more to that network over the next two years, Bajaj said. It also aims to hire around 550 to 600 employees by the end of the current fiscal year.

($1 = 87.2490 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))

** India's Paytm PAYT.NS jumps 5.4% to 1,180 rupees, its highest level since early January 2022

** Fintech firm says Reserve Bank of India has granted authorisation to unit Paytm Payments Services to operate as an online payment aggregator

** Co has been restricted from on-boarding new online merchants in its payment gateway business since November 2022

** Brokerage Citi says the licence win is a positive for sentiments as it lifts a major regulatory restriction on co's business

** Co can now leverage its relative scale and product development capabilities to be more competitive vs earlier in the segment, it adds

** Avg rating of 16 analysts on PAYT is "buy"; median PT is 1,160 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** Stock has gained ~10% so far in 2025

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru)

((Yagnoseni.Das@thomsonreuters.com;))

BENGALURU, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Indian fintech firm Paytm PAYT.NS on Tuesday said its unit Paytm Payments Services has got 'in-principle' approval from the country's central bank to operate as an online payment aggregator.

(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))

Aug 5 (Reuters) - Ant Group Co Ltd 688688.SS:

• ANT GROUP SELLS 37.3 MILLION SHARES IN INDIA'S PAYTM VIA BULK DEAL - EXCHANGE DATA

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: 688688.SS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;;))

** India's Paytm PAYT.NS jumps as much as 2.9% in early trade before paring gains; last up 0.1%

** Fintech firm posts first quarterly profit since September 2024, driven by robust growth in lending business and tight cost controls, and expects further earnings boost

** Improving core business resulted in strong earnings, says Jefferies; upgrades stock to "buy" from "hold"

** Adds, PAYT has done well to rebound from regulatory and business issues in 2024 by managing costs and rebuilding business momentum

** Emkay Global ("buy," PT: 1,350 rupees) says PAYT is executing well on acquiring merchants, leveraging its "superior" soundbox products and distributing loans

** Co's disbursement growth expected to remain healthy given improving tailwinds in unsecured lending - Motilal Oswal ("neutral," PT: 1,025 rupees)

** Stock up 3.3% YTD

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

((Kashish.tandon@thomsonreuters.com))

July 22 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• PAYTM Q1 EBITDA BEFORE ESOP COST AT 1.02 BILLION RUPEES

• PAYTM - SEEING EARLY SIGNS OF USER GROWTH AND RETENTION

• PAYTM - EXPECTS FURTHER IMPROVEMENT IN PROFITABILITY

• PAYTM - EXPECT THE CONTRIBUTION MARGIN TO BE IN THE MID TO HIGH 50S PERCENT FOR THE YEAR

• PAYTM - EXPECT INDIRECT EXPENSES AS A PERCENT OF REVENUES TO CONTINUE DECLINING OVER TIME

• PAYTM - FOR FY 2026, WE EXPECT ESOP COST TO BE IN THE RANGE OF 2.5-2.75 BILLION RUPEES

• PAYTM - DEPRECIATION & AMORTIZATION EXPECTED TO BE IN RANGE OF 5-6 BILLION RUPEES IN FY 2026

• PAYTM - ANTICIPATE GROWTH IN FINANCIAL SERVICES CUSTOMERS WITHIN LOAN DISTRIBUTION, PAYTM MONEY

• PAYTM - FOR PERSONAL LOANS, BASED ON CURRENT TRENDS, SEES EARLY SIGNS OF RECOVERY IN CREDIT CYCLE

• PAYTM - IN FINANCIAL SERVICES, GOING FORWARD, EXPECT HIGHER SHARE OF NON-DLG DISBURSEMENTS

• PAYTM - FOR ADDITIONAL LONG-TERM GROWTH, EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES IN SELECT INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIES

• PAYTM - GOING FORWARD, DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES REVENUE GROWTH TO BE SLOWER SEQUENTIALLY

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;;))

July 17 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• PAYTM CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATES SUBSIDIARY IN SAUDI ARABIA

Source text: ID:nBSE1nHWjm

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;;))

June 12 (Reuters) - Shares of digital payments firm Paytm PAYT.NS slumped as much as 10% on Thursday after India's finance ministry said that reports about the introduction of fees on the popular unified payments interface (UPI) transactions were false and baseless.

The shares posted their sharpest intraday fall since February 2024, before coming off lows to trade down 8%. India's benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI was trading 0.2% lower.

In India, merchants pay fees to banks or payment service providers, such as Paytm, for transactions. There is no fees on UPI payments.

The delay or non-introduction of the fees is "sentiment negative for Paytm", brokerage UBS said, adding that the firm's adjusted core profits could decline more than 10% in fiscal years 2026 and 2027 if increased incentives are absent.

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

((Hritam.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; X: @MukherjeeHritam;))

SYDNEY, May 13 (Reuters) - China's Ant Group has sold 25.5 million Paytm PAYT.NS shares at 823.10 Indian rupees ($9.69) apiece to raise $246 million in a block trade, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

($1 = 84.9025 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

((Scott.Murdoch@thomsonreuters.com;))

Adds details, background paragraph 3 onwards

May 8 (Reuters) - Indian payments firm Paytm PAYT.NS and its founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma have settled an employee stock options violations case with the country's markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said on Thursday.

As part of the settlement, Sharma has been prohibited from accepting fresh employee stock options (ESOPs) from any listed company for three years, while Paytm and Sharma each paid 11.1 million rupees ($129,884) each, SEBI said.

Last August, the SEBI determined that the grant of 21 million ESOPs to Sharma violated its rules governing share-based employee benefits. As per Indian rules, large shareholders who can influence company decisions cannot hold ESOPs.

Consequently, last month, Sharma had foregone these ESOPs and as a result, Paytm took a related 4.92 billion rupees one-time charge in the previous quarter.

Sharma owned a 14.7% stake in Paytm a year before the company went public in 2021. To become eligible for ESOP grants, he reduced his shareholding to 9.1% by transferring 30.97 million shares to Axis Trustee Services, which acted on behalf of the Sharma family trust.

Sharma's brother, Ajay Shekhar Sharma, also settled with SEBI in the same case by cancelling the stock options granted to him.

($1 = 85.4610 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com; 8800437922;))

May 6 (Reuters) - India's Paytm PAYT.NS on Tuesday reported a wider sequential loss for the March quarter as one-time employee stock option costs weighed on earnings.

The digital payments firm posted a loss of 5.4 billion rupees ($64.03 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with a loss of 2.08 billion rupees in the previous quarter.

Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma gave up 210 million in employee stock options during the quarter, triggering a one-time expense of 4.92 billion rupees, which will reduce stock-option costs in future periods, the company had said in April.

($1 = 84.3370 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nishit Navin)

((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))

April 30 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• PAYTM - PCTL INCORPORATED PAYTM ARAB PAYMENTS IN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

• PAYTM - UNIT APPROVED SUBSCRIPTION AMOUNT OF AED 8 MILLION FOR ACQUISITION OF PAYTM ARAB SHARES

Source text: ID:nBSE5TCLCq

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((reuters.briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

April 16 (Reuters) - India's Paytm PAYT.NS said on Wednesday founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has foregone all 21 million employee stock options granted to him, months after the country's markets regulator issued show-cause notices over violation of rules on grant of share-based employee benefits.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com; 8800437922;))

April 2 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• ONE 97 COMMUNICATIONS LTD - PAYTM PARTNERS WITH GHMC TO DEPLOY 400 CARD MACHINES

Source text: ID:nBSEbTRRhQ

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

** Shares of Paytm PAYT.NS fall 4.6% to 727.80 rupees, One Mobikwik Systems ONEM.NS down 5% to 316.90 rupees

** India's union cabinet approved incentive of 15 bln rupees ($174 mln) for low-value UPI transactions between April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025

** UPI is a real-time payment system to transfer money between bank accounts

** Brokerage Jefferies said government's incentives for low-value UPI transactions are half of last year's despite rise in such transactions

** Introduction of merchant charges (MDR) on UPI transactions could help Paytm in offsetting impact from reduction in UPI incentives, Jefferies says

** Paytm set to fall after gaining for three straight sessions, down ~28% YTD

** ONEM down ~45% in 2025

($1 = 86.2220 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vijay Malkar)

((VijayDattaram.Malkar@thomsonreuters.com;))

March 18 (Reuters) - One 97 Communications Ltd PAYT.NS:

• SEBI APPROVES PAYTM MONEY LIMITED AS RESEARCH ANALYST

• PAYTM MONEY CAN OFFER SEBI-COMPLIANT RESEARCH SERVICES

Source text: ID:nBSE5Vwrkj

Further company coverage: PAYT.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, March 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Walmart WMT.N is looking for a cashback too soon. The U.S. retailer is preparing a Mumbai listing of PhonePe, India's leading facilitator of consumer mobile phone-based payments. But a mooted $15 billion valuation looks punchy, and will draw unflattering comparisons to the disastrous initial public offering of Paytm-owner One 97 Communications PAYT.NS.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company picked up PhonePe as part of its 2018 purchase of Flipkart, a deal that valued the e-commerce rival to Amazon AMZN.O at $21 billion. The payments business emerged as a market leader, ahead of Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google Pay and smaller rival Paytm. Through India's Unified Payments Interface channel, PhonePe boasts 530 million customers and a 48% market share, equivalent to $137 billion worth of monthly transactions.

That may not justify an IPO valuation of 25 times sales for the year ended March 2024, however. The multiple is six times its top listed rival: Paytm debuted at 44 times sales in 2021 but the stock has crashed below its IPO price.

True, PhonePe is a superior business in some ways. It has a deep-pocketed American parent and none of the geopolitical worries Paytm suffers as a result of its Chinese backing. An affiliate of Ant Group, a Hangzhou-based financial firm, continues to own almost 10% of the company. PhonePe also has had less trouble with regulators than its rival.

Yet while revenue is growing quickly, PhonePe is unprofitable like Paytm despite slashing the incentives it offers to retain customers. The company generated a net loss of $134 million in the year ended March 2024, financial filings show. That is hard to reverse because New Delhi keeps fees on UPI transactions at zero and is committed to low-cost payments. The government compensates service providers but that is just 10% of PhonePe's revenue.

PhonePe can cross-sell products including consumer loans and insurance but the company could easily lose its edge in the payments market too if India implements a longstanding plan to cap the individual market share of UPI apps at 30% of overall transaction volume.

Minority investors in PhonePe may be impatient for an exit. Plus Walmart paid India about $1 billion in tax in 2022 to redomicile to the country from Singapore. But Indian investors are impatient with lossmaking companies and they will ask why Walmart is testing its luck when memories of the Paytm disaster remain so fresh, instead of waiting for its payments business to prove itself.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Walmart-backed financial technology startup PhonePe plans to seek a valuation of up to $15 billion in an initial public offering in India, news website Moneycontrol reported on February 25, citing unnamed industry sources.

The digital payments firm is working with Kotak Mahindra Capital, JPMorgan, Citi and Morgan Stanley on the deal, the report addded.

(Editing by Una Galani and Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/shritama.bose@thomsonreuters.com))

** Paytm PAYT.NS slips as much as 3.3% to 702.80 rupees

** India's financial crime fighting agency says probe revealed co, units violated foreign exchange laws "to the tune of 6.11 bln rupees (~$70 mln)"

** PAYT says it is working to resolve matter in accordance with applicable laws, regulatory processes

** Stock dropped as much as 4.4% on Monday after co said it got show-cause notice from Enforcement Directorate for allegedly violating Foreign Exchange Management Act during 2015-2019

** Stock rated "hold" on avg; median PT is 950 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** PAYT drops 29% YTD

($1 = 87.3620 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

((Kashish.tandon@thomsonreuters.com))