Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the Founder of Paytm, a digital payment and ecommerce portal backed by Alibaba, may fund the payment bank operation by diluting 1% stake holding in One97 Communications.
Sharma, being the Indian promoter has to hold 51% of the payment, while the remaining 49% can be owned by other corporate entities, according to the Central Bank. In August, Sharma received his payment bank licence, and was one among the 11 applicants to receive it. He plans to begin the operations at the start of the next financial year.
Until the bank operations become profitable, Sharma plans to invest capital between $25 million to $50 million. He is looking for a combination of equity and debt to fund his 51% bank stake. He plans enter the market after Diwali, and tap banks, current investors and financial institutions for the funding. Sharma’s stake has reduced from 27% to 21% in Paytm, which is valued at around $3.4 billion.
According to him, Paytm Payment Bank Ltd. requires around 150 Crore for the set up. The company may announce its CEO by next month and also plans to prepare a blue print by roping in consultancy firms like EY and McKinsey.
Reference: https://goo.gl/uPbgz6