In response to recent speculations surrounding the potential acquisition of Paytm Wallet by Jio Financial, Paytm has refuted these claims. The company, in an official release, stated that the news item suggesting such an acquisition is speculative, baseless, and factually incorrect.
Paytm clarified that no negotiations have taken place in this regard.
The clarification from Paytm extends to its associate company, Paytm Payments Bank Limited, as well. According to the release, the payments bank has also not engaged in any negotiations related to the speculated acquisition by Mukesh Ambani.
“We clarify that the abovementioned news item is speculative, baseless, and factually incorrect. We have not been in any negotiations in this regard. We have been informed by Paytm Payments Bank Limited, our associate company, that they also have not been in any negotiations in this regard,” the company asserted in its release.
The clarification comes a day after Ambani’s Jio Financial Services (JFSL) clarified that it is not in talks with troubled One 97 Communications to acquire Paytm wallet.
“We clarify that the news item is speculative and we have not been in any negotiations in this regard,” JFSL said in a regulatory filing late in the night. It was asked by stock exchange BSE to comment on reports stating that the NBFC is in talks with One 97 to acquire the wallet business.
Following the report, shares of the NBFC, which got demerged from parent entity RIL and listed on stock exchanges last year, ended 14 per cent higher at Rs 289 on BSE.
Paytm has lost about $2.5 billion or about 43 per cent of its market value since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told Paytm Payments Bank on Wednesday to stop accepting fresh deposits in its accounts or popular wallets from March.
The stock fell by its daily trading limit to 438.5 rupees ($5.28) on Monday, just shy of the previous all-time low of 438.35 rupees hit in November 2022.
RBI’s order, which has far-reaching consequences for how India’s most popular digital payments app Paytm operates, led to a 20 per cent drop in the stock – its daily maximum at that time – on Thursday and Friday.
Source: Economic Times