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Reuters, BENGALURU, July 16 – Paytm, a SoftBank-backed Indian digital payments firm, has filed for an IPO for up to 166 billion rupees ($2.23 billion), according to draft papers filed with the country’s market regulator on Friday. Paytm, which is backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N), China’s Ant Group, and Japan’s SoftBank, said the IPO will include an issue of new shares worth 83 billion rupees and an offer for sale worth 83 billion rupees (9984.T). The Noida-based firm, which is owned by One97 Communications Ltd, stated that the IPO proceeds would be used to strengthen its payment ecosystem as well as new business initiatives and acquisitions. According to the prospectus, One97 had a combined net loss of 16.96 billion rupees for the year ended March 31, which was lower than the previous year’s loss of 28.42 billion rupees. The revenue fell 14.6% to 28.02 billion rupees. Paytm, which began as a platform for cellphone recharging a decade ago, exploded in popularity after Uber featured it as a quick payment option. Its IPO aspirations coincide with a pandemic-fueled boom of India’s digital economy and a growing struggle for market dominance with Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google Pay and Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) WhatsApp Pay. Since India’s 2016 ban on high-value currency bank notes, adoption of digital payments has increased, allowing Paytm to expand its offerings to include insurance and gold sales, movie and airplane ticketing, and bank deposits and remittances. A source told Reuters on Monday that the company was planning to raise $268 million in a pre-IPO fundraising round. find out more Several Indian firms have announced ambitions to go public in order to take advantage of foreign capital’ liquidity. Food delivery company Zomato, Walmart Inc.-owned e-commerce giant Flipkart, beauty brand Nykaa, and ride-hailing service Ola are among the most closely watched. After state-run miner Coal India (COAL.NS) in 2010 and Reliance Power (RPOL.NS) in 2008, Paytm’s $2.23 billion IPO would make it one of India’s biggest public offerings. The IPO’s booked running managers are JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), ICICI Securities (ICCI.NS), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Axis Capital, Citi (C.N), and HDFC Bank (HDBK.NS). 74.5140 Indian rupees = $1 Vishwadha Chander and Chris Thomas in Bengaluru contributed reporting; Arun Koyyur, Uttaresh.V, and Subhranshu Sahu edited the piece. The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles are our standards./nRead More

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