Reliance Capital reportedly sells 1pc stake in Paytm to Alibaba for Rs 275 cr

Reliance Capital has reportedly sold its 1 percent stake in Paytm to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its payment arm Ant Financial Rs 275 crore.

The company had been on a lookout for a potential buyer for over a month now. Reliance Capital holds 1 percent stake in Paytm at the current date and the partial sale of its stake has resulted in over 25 times gains for the ADAG Group firm.

The move by Alibaba and Ant Financial, who together own a 40 percent stake in One 97 Communication, to consolidate their holding comes after they recently hiked stake in the online retail unit. Alibaba Group led $200 million round in Paytm E-commerce unit Paytm Mall earlier this month.

Notably, founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had sold his 1 per cent holding in One97 Communications to raise about Rs 325 crore. The money was intended to be invested in the company’s payments bank service — Paytm Payments Bank Pvt. Ltd that will go live by the end of fiscal 2016-17.

Apparently, two other investors SVB (Saama Capital) and SAP Ventures have also sold their combined stake of about 3.3 percent to Alibaba, according to Livemint.

One97 Communication is yet to comment on these secondary exits.