Cheers for Paytm shareholders as Alibaba consolidates India exit after selling stock in BigBasket, Zomato, Paytm

New Delhi: There was a big movement in Paytm stock on Thursday as a block deal took place where 2,59,930 shares were sold at Rs 535.90 worth Rs 13.93 crore.

Multiple sources confirmed that Chinese group Alibaba is behind the deal, selling up to 3.1 per cent of its total equity of about 6 per cent.

Alibaba seems to be making an exit from India as it has sold shares in other investments such as BigBasket and Zomato, sources said, adding that Ant Financial is not going to sell anytime soon.

This could come as a good news for investors, with Chinese shareholding reducing their stake it will benefit the company in their FDI aspect.

In fact, immediately after the block deal (where the share price fell to Rs 534), it soon recovered to Rs 548.

Paytm's shares had been rising continuously for the past few days, after there were several good news floating about the company.

Its associate Paytm Payments Bank has received the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval to appoint Surinder Chawla as its Managing Director and CEO.

The company had posted a strong operating performance update for Q3FY23.

The Paytm 'Super App' continues to see growing consumer engagement with the average MTU for the quarter ended December 2022 at 85 million, registering a growth of 32 per cent YoY.

The total merchant GMV processed through the platform for the quarter ended December 2022 aggregated to Rs 3.46 lakh crore ($42 billion), marking a YoY growth of 38 per cent.

The number of loans grew 117 per cent YoY to 3.7 million for the month of December, and 137 per cent YoY to 10.5 million cumulative loans for the three months ended December 2022.

As a result, total disbursements for three months ended December 2022 was Rs 9,958 crore, a growth of 357 per cent YoY.

Paytm continues to be on track for its profitability plans, with robust revenue growth driven by its strong business model.