Paytm gets Sebi approval for biggest Indian IPO in nearly a decade: Report

Paytm, India’s digital payments pioneer backed by SoftBank Group Corp., received approval from the markets regulator that clears the way for its planned $2.2 billion initial public offering.

The Securities and Exchange Board cleared the IPO, which will be India’s biggest so far, on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter. The company could list in Mumbai by mid-November, they added, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

A representative for Paytm declined to comment. An email to Sebi wasn’t immediately answered.

The Noida-based firm, which is also backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., hopes to tap strong investor demand that’s sent the shares of fellow unicorn Zomato Ltd. soaring after its July listing. Formally called One97 Communications Ltd., if Paytm achieves its Rs 16,600 crore ($2.2 billion) IPO target, it would surpass the more than Rs 15,000 crore raised by state-owned Coal India Ltd. in 2013.

Paytm said in its draft prospectus that it plans to sell an equal number of new and existing shares.

The firm has the biggest share in India’s merchant-payments market, with over 20 million merchant partners in its network. Its users make 1.4 billion monthly transactions, according to numbers in a recent company blog post.

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