Adani Group Denies Talks With Paytm Parent On Stake Purchase

The Adani Group on Wednesday denied any talks of a stake purchase in Paytm parent One97 Communications Ltd.

This clarification followed a media report claiming that Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma met Gautam Adani in Ahmedabad on Tuesday to finalise the contours of a deal. Another report suggested that Adani was looking to enter the payments space and was negotiating with West Asian funds to secure their investment in Paytm's operator.

“We categorically deny this baseless speculation. It is totally false and untrue,” an Adani Group spokesperson said.

Earlier, Vijay Shekhar Sharma's Paytm also clarified that these updates were merely speculative and that no such discussions were taking place. "We have always made and will continue to make disclosures in compliance with our obligations under SEBI," Paytm stated in an exchange filing.

In the fourth quarter of the financial year 2024, Paytm's net loss widened quarter-on-quarter to Rs 551 crore, while its revenue fell 21% to Rs 2,267 crore.

The company also wrote down the value of its entire Rs 227 crore investment in Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. This development followed the Reserve Bank of India's crackdown on the payments bank, which impacted its wallet and banking services.

The scrip rose as much as 4.99% intraday, its upper circuit limit, to Rs 359.45 apiece, the highest level since Tuesday as of 9:39 a.m. This compares to a 0.32% decline in the NSE Nifty 50.

It has fallen 43.43% on a year-to-date basis and 48.45% in the last twelve months. Total traded volume so far in the day stood at 0.17 times its 30-day average. The relative strength index was at 50.16.