Japan's SoftBank cuts stake in Paytm to under 3%

Japan's SoftBank Group has further reduced its stake in beleaguered payments firm Paytm to 2.83 per cent from 5.01 per cent, an exchange filing showed on Thursday.

The conglomerate, which held a 17.5 per cent stake in Paytm in September 2022, has trimmed its ownership for more than a year through multiple open market deals, with its most recent cut being in January. While some global investors like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and China's Alibaba Group exited the firm in 2023, others, including a Netherlands-based unit of Chinese fintech firm Ant Financial cut their stake.

Shares of Paytm were down 3.4 per cent in afternoon trade. The stock has fallen 48.5 per cent and lost around 234 billion rupees ($2.8 billion) in value since the Reserve Bank of India on January 31 ordered the company to wind down its banking arm citing persistent non-compliance with regulations.