The millionaires' club at Paytm

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who founded the company in 2000, holds 9.1% or close to 6 crore equity shares in Paytm. 
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who founded the company in 2000, holds 9.1% or close to 6 crore equity shares in Paytm. 

Summary

Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will get over two-thirds of the Esop pool

Employees of One97 Communications Pvt Ltd, owner of the Paytm app, stand to gain over Rs.6,745 crore ($900 million) at the upper end of the price band of the company's initial public offering (IPO). 

Paytm is seeking a $20 billion valuation for its IPO due to open on November 8. Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, however, will account for over two-thirds of this ESOP pool. He is expected to make around Rs.4,515 crore ($602 million) with the 2.1 crore options he was issued for the first time by the company in September.

Sharma, who founded the company in 2000, holds 9.1% or close to 6 crore equity shares in Paytm. When combined with his options, he stands to make over $2.3 billion at Rs.2,150 apiece (the expected price at the upper end of the price band of the IPO).

"Vijay has never gotten ESOPs (before this), rather (he) diluted his stake for the ESOP pool," said Madhur Deora, president and group chief financial officer, One97 Communications Ltd. in a separate interaction with Mint on Thursday.

Sarvesh Kumar Sharma/Mint
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Sarvesh Kumar Sharma/Mint

Besides Sharma, 10 executives of Paytm collectively stand to make over ₹1,045 crore ($139 million) from their shares and employee stock options. Deora and Shekhar, however, declined to comment on this since they did not have the information at hand. A separate email with these questions to the company, remained unanswered till press time.

Deora and Chief Executive Officer of Paytm Labs Harinderpal Singh Takhar together hold shares and stock options valued at a combined ₹552.69 crore ($73.7 million). The cash pile value was calculated by multiplying the upper end of the price band of ₹2080-2150 a share with the number of options and shares held by the key executive personnel of the company.

Deora has been associated with the firm since 2016 and holds a bachelor’s degree of science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was earlier associated with Citigroup Global Markets India. In FY21 Deora earned ₹2.29 crore compensation. He also got ₹13 lakh as performance linked incentives which was paid in FY22.

Takhar holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering (computer) from the University of Delhi and a master’s degree in business administration from INSEAD. He has been associated with Paytm Labs Inc since 2013 and previously with Paytm Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd, Research In Motion Limited and Nokia Corporation. In FY21 he received compensation of ₹1.62 crore.

Vikas Garg, chief financial officer, will make around ₹148 crore ($19.8 million) through its shares and vested options. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. Further, he has been certified as a chartered accountant by the ICAI. He was previously associated with ICICI Bank and Ibibo Web Pvt Ltd. In FY21, it earned ₹1.39 crore compensation. He also has performance linked incentives of ₹17 crore which was paid in FY2022.

Renu Satti, chief operating officer of Offline Payments, have been granted shares and vested options worth nearly Rs83 crore while Bhavesh Gupta, chief executive officer of the lending business of the firm, has shares and options worth ₹82 crore. 

Sudhanshu Gupta who is chief operating officer of Paytm First Games Pvt Ltd holds shares and options worth ₹60 crore; Praveen Kumar Sharma, managing director and chief executive officer of Paytm Payments Services holds stocks and options worth ₹49 crore.

Bhavesh Gupta joined Paytm on 4 August 2020 and he holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Institute of Management Studies, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. He was previously associated with Clix Capital Services Private Limited, ICICI Bank Limited and IDFC Bank Limited. He earned ₹2.22 crore as remuneration in FY21.

Deepankar Sanwalka, president compliances and operations has  ₹33 crore options and shares; Manmeet Singh Dhody, chief technology officer, has shares and vested options worth ₹32 crore; and Amit Khera, company secretary and compliance officer, has ₹3.34 crore options and shares.

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