India's Paytm, Adani Group say not in stake sale talks

BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's Paytm is not in talks to sell a stake in itself, while neither billionaire Gautam Adani nor his namesake power-to-ports group are looking to buy shares in the embattled digital payments firm, the companies said on Wednesday.

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had visited Adani, the billionaire chairman of the Adani conglomerate, in his office on Tuesday to "finalise the contours of a deal", the Times of India reported earlier in the day.

The discussions between Adani and Sharma have been going on for a while and Adani is also in talks with funds from West Asia to bring them as investors in Paytm, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

"We hereby clarify that the abovementioned news item is speculative and the company is not engaged in any discussions in this regard," Paytm said in a statement, without naming Adani or specifying if Sharma was in such talks in his personal capacity.

However, a spokesperson for the Adani Group told Reuters that neither the group nor Adani himself were in any such discussions. "We categorically deny this baseless speculation. It is totally false and untrue," the spokeperson said.

Sharma did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. He owned 9.1% of Paytm in his personal capacity and another 10.3% through Resilient Asset Management, a foreign entity, as of end-March, per exchange data.

Despite the denials, Paytm's shares jumped to and held at an exchange-allowed maximum of 5%. Shares of Adani Enterprises, the flagship of the Adani Group, were 0.5% higher, reversing earlier losses.

Paytm has lost roughly half its market value in the past nearly four months since it shut its banking unit after falling foul of regulations.

Meanwhile, a media report recently said that the more business-to-business oriented Adani group is looking to expand into more consumer-facing businesses.

If a deal with Paytm materialises, it would mark the Adani Group's foray into India's burgeoning digital payments market, which includes Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePe.

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)