On Monday, the Price Waterhouse resigned as the auditor of Paytm Payments Services Ltd. The Company in a regulatory filing said,” We wish to inform you that M/s. Price Waterhouse Chartered Accountants LLP (Firm Registration No. 012754N/N500016) Statutory Auditors of material subsidiary i.e. PaytmPayments Services Limited (“PPSL”) have resigned with effect from August 07, 2023.
No concern or issue has been raised by the Statutory Auditors. The Board of Directors of PPSL have noted their resignation and placed on record its appreciation to M/s Price Waterhouse Chartered Accountants LLP for their contribution. Further, M/s. S.R. Batliboi & Associates LLP (Firm Registration No. 101049W/E300004) has been appointed as the Statutory Auditors of PPSL with effect from August 07, 2023 as per applicable provisions of Section 139 of the Companies Act, 2013.
Meanwhile, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder and CEO of One97 Communications will acquire a 10.30 per cent stake in Paytm from Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV through an off-market transfer in a no-cash deal.
As per the deal, Sharma will purchase 10.3 per cent shareholding in Paytm from Antfin through his 100 per cent owned overseas entity Resilient Asset Management BV making him the largest shareholder in the company with a total stake of 19.42 per cent. Resilient Asset in return will issue debt instrument OCDs (optionally convertible debentures) to Antfin.
As per a a BSE filing, “Accordingly, no cash payment will be made for this acquisition, and neither will any pledge, guarantee, or other value assurance be provided by Sharma, directly or otherwise.”
With this deal, shareholding of Antfin will decline to 13.5 per cent in Paytm from 23.8 per cent it held earlier.
