Paytm staff plans INR 600 crore ESOP share conversion ahead of IPO
Recently, numerous senior executives at Paytm are transforming their employee share choices into stocks before the digital payments major launches one of India’s biggest initial public offerings later this year.
Cumulatively, the stocks being transformed could be worth more than INR 600 crore, folk’s conscious of the matter, based on the Noida-based company’s most recent valuation. Paytm was last valued at under INR 12 lakh crore, or $16 billion.
In order to simplify these relations, Paytm is also working with advancing companies to enable loans of around INR 100 crore for its top executives. Such funding is expected to help employees deal with the tax payout during the conversion, which will be charged on the difference between the current share price and the price at which the ESOPs were granted.
This initiative will cover around 300 employees, said one person aware of the details.
The spokesperson said, “They (Paytm) were getting many requests from employees about the conversion, and since it’s a significant amount, the financing is being arranged through partner lenders.”
These moves come close on the heels of Zomato’s stellar listing last month that spawned about 18 dollar-millionaires among its senior leadership. Paytm has not officially commented on the valuation it expects to list at, but people aware of the company’s thinking estimate that it could be more than $25 billion.