Investing.com – Paytm will be closely watched during the Indian market open on Wednesday after a report said Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, was looking to acquire a stake in the fintech firm.
The Times of India reported that Adani was in late-stage talks with Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Sharma over the conglomerate’s acquisition of a stake in One 97 Communications Ltd (NS:), which owns and operates Paytm.
Any stake in Paytm would allow Adani to push further into India’s hotly contested fintech space, where it would compete with the likes of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:) Google Pay, Walmart’s PhonePe and Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial.
A large stake in Paytm will also be Adani’s biggest acquisition after NDTV and Ambuja Cements. The conglomerate has several listed companies in the Indian markets led by its flagship. Adani Enterprises LLC (NS:).
A Times of India report said talks between Sharma and Adani have been going on for some time and that they met on Tuesday in Ahmedabad to finalize the agreement.
Any stake acquired by Adani would be a bargain after a series of regulatory hurdles saw Paytm shares lose nearly half their value in 2024.
The shares were close to record lows after underperforming significantly since listing in 2021.
There was renewed controversy at the company this year after the Reserve Bank of India ordered the firm to close its banking division. Paytm wrote off the entire unit cost and also recorded a sharp loss for the January-March quarter.