Resilient Asset Management B.V., an entity wholly owned by Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, plans to sell shares worth up to ₹4,895 crore ($513 million) in One 97 Communications Ltd through secondary-market block transactions on Tuesday, according to the terms of the deal reviewed by Mint.
The transaction includes a base offering of up to 19.2 million shares, representing 3% of the company's total outstanding equity, valued at ₹2,949 crore ($309 million), according to the deal document. The offering also includes an upsize option to sell an additional 12.7 million shares, or a 1.98% stake, valued at ₹1,946 crore ($204 million).
As of June-end, Sharma's Resilient was listed as a public shareholder with just over 10% stake in the Paytm parent. Resilient is a Netherlands-registered holding company that Sharma set up in 2023 to acquire an approximately 10.20% equity stake in Paytm from Antfin against optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) issued to Antfin, with the economic interest continuing to belong to Antfin.
Resilient’s stake sale follows Elevation Capital’s partial stake sale in Paytm on 4 August, through which it cashed in more than $200 million. Both these stake sales come as the company dropped plans for a proposed bonus share issue.
On 20 July, the Paytm board reviewed an earlier proposal for a bonus share issue but decided not to proceed. The board said it remained focused on compounding growth and profitability to create long-term shareholder value and, after due deliberation, concluded that prioritizing business growth is in the best interest of shareholders.
The deal is being executed by Resilient under its existing OCD agreement with Antfin. The economic value to be received by Resilient will be retained by Antfin under the agreement.
To be clear, One 97 is not a party to the transaction, and there is no change in Sharma's direct shareholding in the firm.
In the June quarter, One 97's revenue from operations rose 28% year-on-year and 8% sequentially to ₹2,448 crore.
The growth was primarily led by its payment services business, where revenue rose 33% from a year earlier to ₹1,384 crore, supported by higher merchant payment volumes and continued expansion of its payments ecosystem.
The company said its gross merchandise value (GMV) growth accelerated to 31% year-on-year in Q1FY27, compared with 27% in Q4FY26 and 24% in Q3FY26.
Net profit jumped 79% to ₹220 crore, from ₹123 crore in the year-ago quarter. On a comparable basis, excluding the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) incentive, net profit surged 207% to ₹212 crore from ₹69 crore.
Sharma's stake sale in Paytm would make this the latest secondary trade in a new-age company by a major investor. Before Sharma and Elevation's stake sales, Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures, Walmart-owned Flipkart Internet, and IMM India Fund offered to sell a combined stake of up to 9.08% in Shadowfax Technologies Ltd for around $100 million on 23 July.
Prior to that, eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions Ltd had seen early backers offload their holdings once their lock-ins expired. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek sold a 2% stake in Lenskart for ₹1,940 crore this month, after Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund sold a 2.3% stake for a similar amount. On 3 June, a SoftBank entity sold a 3.25% stake through a block deal worth ₹2,873 crore.