Warren Buffett, Jack Ma-Backed Paytm Tumbles To Lowest Since May After SoftBank Sells One-Third Stake

The stock of digital payments service provider Paytm — backed by billionaire Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway BRK BRK and Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding BABA — lost nearly 10% of its value on Thursday in the Indian market.

What Happened: The shares of Paytm’s parent One 97 Communications fell to their lowest since May after a Reuters report said that Korean-Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY SFTBF sold a 4.5% stake through block deals for $200 million in the Indian e-payment platform. 

Earlier this month the stock had topped analysts' recommendation list,

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SoftBank sold 29.35 million shares at INR 555.67. SoftBank had a 17.5% stake in Paytm as of Sept. 30, said Reuters.

The development comes a day after the lock-in period for anchor investors in Paytm’s November 2021 IPO ended.

The decision is the latest in a string of divestments that SoftBank has made recently after its flagship Vision Fund unit — the second-largest shareholder of Paytm — booked nearly $50 billion in losses in just six months. The group had also raised $2.4 billion selling shares in T-Mobile US TMUS earlier this year.

Earlier, in May, Alibaba and Ant Financial also sold their entire stake in the e-commerce subsidiary Paytm Mall for INR 42 crore.

Meanwhile, Indian brokerage ICICI Securities had initiated a Buy call for Paytm stock earlier last week with a target price of INR 1,285 — more than double its current level.

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