Digital payments platform Paytm could consider Bitcoin offerings if the government will pull back various regulatory policies that make cryptoucrrency trading illegal in India.
Madhur Deora, the Chief Financial Officer at Paytm, told Bloomberg TV the bitcoin is still in a regulatory grey area if not a regulatory ban in India. At the moment Paytm does not do Bitcoin. If it was ever to become fully legal in the country, then clearly there could be offerings that the company could launch.
Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had barred cryptocurrency trading, however, the order was rejected by the Supreme Court in March 2020. Since then, the government has considered the implementation of crypto legislation, but RBI remains extremely critical and continues to support its ban.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam came clean on the cryptocurrency trading and said the government is not against cryptocurrency, and rather it will explore different ways, and with that, India’s fintech sector will also get benefited, reported The Economic Times.
Deora’s statement has come at a time when the digital payment firm is set to launch its initial public offerings (IPO) on November 8.
The price band has been set at Rs 2,080- Rs 2,150 per share. This implies the firm is now valued between Rs 1.44 lakh crore- Rs 1.48 lakh crore.
The three-day subscription period closes on November 10.
Paytm stated that it planned to raise Rs 18,300 crore from the IPO, inclusive of Rs 8,300 crore from the issuance of fresh equity and Rs 10,000 crore from an offer for sale (OFS).
The company has mandated investment banks Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and ICICI Securities Ltd to manage the issue.
Moreover, on 27 October, Paytm announced that Switzerland-based reinsurer Swiss Re will buy a 23 per cent stake in its insurance unit, Paytm Insuretech (PIT), for about Rs 920 crore.
PIT plans to leverage the digital firm's customer base and merchant ecosystem to develop innovative insurance products. Paytm Insuretech had acquired insurance company Raheja QBE in July 2020.
