Berkshire Hathaway sells stake in India’s Paytm for $165m
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has sold all of its stake in Indian fintech One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, for around $165 million.
Berkshire Hathaway sells Paytm stake at 40% loss
The exit sets Berkshire Hathaway up for a loss of around 40% on the total investment it made in the company five years ago. In 2018, it acquired a 3% stake in the fintech for $300 million at a valuation of $10 billion. The firm had initially sold some of its stake during Paytm’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2021 at a profit.
According to Mint, Berkshire Hathaway sold its remaining 2.46% stake to Ghisallo Master Fund and Copthall Mauritius Investment, who purchased 4,275,000 shares and 7,575,529 shares, respectively.
With the move, Berkshire Hathaway becomes the latest foreign investor to sell shares in the fintech firm in recent months, following Ant Group and Softbank.
In August this year, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm’s founder and CEO, agreed to buy 10.3% of Ant Financial’s stake for around $628 million, reducing the Chinese conglomerate’s shareholding to 13.5%.
