Shares in India`s Paytm indicated 9% lower in pre-market trade on debut
NEW DELHI -Shares in Paytm were indicated 9.3% below their IPO price in pre-market trade - a level which would value the Ant Group-backed digital payments firm at around 1.26 trillion rupees ($17 billion) after it completed India's biggest-ever IPO.
They were indicated at 1,950 rupees versus the offer price of 2,150 rupees.
Paytm, which also counts SoftBank among its backers, raised $2.5 billion in its initial public offering, of which $1.1 billion was from institutional investors. Last week it received $2.64 billion worth of bids for the remaining shares on offer, or 1.89 times.
The company, headquartered on the outskirts of India's capital New Delhi, priced its 85.1 million-share issue at the top of the range at 2,150 rupees each.
Engineering graduate Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded Paytm in 2010 as a platform for mobile recharges. The company grew quickly after ride-hailing firm Uber listed it as a quick payment option in India and its use swelled further in late 2016 when New Delhi's shock ban on high-value currency notes boosted digital payments.
Paytm's success has turned Sharma, a school teacher's son, into a billionaire with a net worth of $2.4 billion according to Forbes. Its IPO has also minted hundreds of new millionaires in a country where per capita income is below $2,000.
