Paytm shares: Alibaba sells stake during buyback period. who bought?

“The company bought back an aggregate amount of 1,55,66,746 equity shares using the 849,83,39,982, representing 99.98 per cent of the maximum buy-back size. The price at which the equity shares were bought back depended on the price quoted on the stock exchanges.” Paytm informed in an exchange filing earlier this week.

A share buyback, also known as share repurchase, is a corporate action to buy back its own outstanding shares from its existing shareholders, usually at a premium to the prevailing market price. This can be an alternative tax-efficient way of returning money to shareholders. Share buybacks reduce the number of shares in circulation, which can increase share price and earnings per share (EPS).

During the buyback period, Chinese e-commerce major alibaba Sold its entire direct stake in the company in two phases. However, the company’s group firm Ant Financial holds around 25% stake in Paytm and remains the largest shareholder of the digital financial services firm.

According to NSE wholesale deals data, Alibaba sold 192,00,000 shares 536.95 on 12 January and 214,31,822 shares on 10 February 642.74 during the buyback period. Meanwhile, Ghisalo Master Fund LP bought 49,80,000 shares. 534.8 per share on 12 January and Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) bought 54,95,000 shares on the same date. Morgan Stanley Asia also bought 54,23,087 shares on February 10, while sold 5,23,878 shares on the same day, according to exchange data.

The fintech company posted its first quarterly operating profit as a listed firm and also narrowed its losses during the third quarter (Q3 FY23) of the current financial year. Paytm’s net loss narrows in December quarter 392 crore as compared to 779 crore from a year ago while its revenue from operations grew by 42% 2,062 crores.