Paytm gets SEBI nod for India's biggest IPO

New Delhi: Digital payments company Paytm has got approval from market regulator SEBI for the biggest initial public offering (IPO) of Rs 16,600 crore. As per a Zee Business report, SEBI has approved the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) of One97 Communications, which is the parent company of Paytm. 

The company is expected to hit the stock market by the end of this month and is planning to drop the share sale before the IPO to get listed faster. 

The company plans to raise around Rs 16,600 crores including Rs 8,300 crores of fresh equity and Rs 8,300 crore of Offer For Sale. Notably, the company has been backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co.

If Paytm achieves its Rs 16,600 crore target in the IPO, it will be the country's biggest so far, surpassing Coal India's Rs 15,200 crore in 2013.

Paytm is looking at a valuation of Rs 1.47-1.78 lakh crore. US-based valuation expert Aswath Damodaran has valued the unlisted shares of the firm at Rs 2,950 apiece.

The company has the biggest share in India’s merchant payments market, with over 2 crore merchants on board. In a recent blog post, the company said that its users make 1.4 billion monthly transactions.