The Japanese multinational investment holding company SoftBank has offloaded another 2 percent stake in fintech major One97 Communications, the parent company of the payment platform Paytm. This move will reduce the firm's shareholding in the company to about 5 percent.   

"SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Limited has disposed of an aggregate of 12,706,807 equity shares of One97 Communications Ltd in a series of disposals undertaken between December 19, 2023, and January 20, 2024, with the disposal on January 20, 2024, breaching the 2 percent threshold specified in Regulations 29(2) of the Sebi Takeover regulations," SoftBank said in a statement.   

SoftBank had a 7.01 percent stake in the company before the latest stake sale in the fintech, which has now reduced to 5.06 percent.   

The investment firm sold its shares in open-market transactions between December 19 and January 20, The Economic Times reported. 

SoftBank has been gradually reducing its stakes in Indian companies. The firm sold a 1.1 percent stake in Zomato for Rs 1125 crore, as reported by ET.

SoftBank, which was among the early investors in Indian new-age companies, sold about 1.8 crore shares in the logistics start-up Delhivery in November last year. The investor also gave up a 2.5 percent stake in PB Fintech in October.  
Meanwhile, the Noida-based fintech company witnessed an increase in retail investors holding its shares following the stake sale by SoftBank.   

Domestic retail investors have sequentially increased their stake in Paytm to 12.85 percent in the third quarter ending December 2023, up from 8.28 percent in the previous quarter.   

Paytm recently announced its quarterly results for December, revealing that the company's revenue stood at 850 crore, marking a growth of 38 percent Year on Year (YoY).   

The average monthly transacting users (MTU) for the quarter grew by 18 percent YoY to 10 crores (100 million), the company reported.