Paytm founder could see his stake go up by 2-4% in parent firm ahead of IPO

 In August this year, the company had doubled its ESOPs pool from 24,094,280 to 61,094,280, this was approved by shareholders earlier this month

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma could see his stake go up at One97 Communications, the parent company of the digital payments platform. Sharma, who holds around 14.6 per cent in One97, could see his stake increase by another 2 to 4 per cent, said sources in the know.

“Vijay had in the past given 4 per cent of his equity before forming Paytm’s ESOP pool was created. So technically, till sometime back, people got his shares as their ESOPs,” said a source aware of the details on the condition of anonymity.

In August this year, the company had doubled its ESOPs pool from 24,094,280 to 61,094,280, this was approved by shareholders earlier this month. “Vijay has never taken any ESOPs in the past. The existing shareholders see this as a reward for the incredible work he has done in creating payments and financial services leader in Paytm,” said another source close to the development.

These changes come as the company has filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for an IPO that intends to raise over $2 billion.

Sharma is understood to be offloading some of his stake in the company through an offer for share (OFS). With this, however, he will manage to hold a substantial stake in the company. Some of the other investors like Alibaba Group, Ant Group, Softbank, and others are also offloading some part of their holdings in the company.