on TwitterIndian tycoon Sunil Mittal, founder of telecoms company Bharti Airtel, is seeking a stake in Paytm by merging his financial services unit into the fintech giant’s payments bank, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 24, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Mittal seeks to fold Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank in a stock deal and is also seeking to buy Paytm shares from other holders, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Large investors in Paytm-owner One97 Communications, including SoftBank and China’s Ant Group, have discussed selling shares in the company through a secondary stock deal, The Economic Times reported on Feb. 27, citing unnamed sources.
“We do not comment on market speculation," a Bharti Enterprises spokesperson said in an emailed statement.Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.