CCI approves SoftBank's 20% stake acquisition in Paytm's parent One97 Communications

CCI has approved stake acquisition by SoftBank in Paytm's parent company - One97 Communications.

Samsung India Vice President (Online Business) Sandeep Singh Arora, Paytm Founder & CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Samsung India Senior Vice President (Online Business) Brian Byungwoo Kim at the launch of Galaxy J3 Pro in New Delhi. Image Source: IANS

Key Highlights

CCI tweeted that it has approved SoftBank's acquisition of stake in One97 Communications.

Paytm had received $1.4 billion investment from SoftBank in May.

Paytm has already begun its operations of Paytm Payments bank.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Japanese multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation SoftBank's 20% stake acquisition in Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications.

“CCI India approves acquisition of 20 percent stake in One97 Communications Limited by SoftBank Group Corp,” the government agency said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

.@CCI India approves acquisition of 20 percent stake in One97 Communications Limited by SoftBank Group Corp”

— CCI (@CCI_India) July 18, 2017

In May, Softbank had invested $1.4 billion in what was labelled as the 'largest round of funding from a single investor an Indian digital platform,' in the e-wallets platform of One97 Communications - Paytm.

The Vijay Shekhar Sharma owned company said, “We are at an inflection point in our journey with Paytm. This investment by Softbank and support of the incredible entrepreneur Masa Son is a great endorsement of our team's execution and vision.”

Earlier in March the company had launched its Paytm Financial Services platform. Its Paytm Payments Bank was launched on May 23.

Paytm has claimed to have a user base of over 22.5 crore and has targeted half a billion (50 crore) Indians to come onto its mobile platform.

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