NEW DELHI: Ant Group, which holds 30 per cent stake in India’s leading digital payment processor Paytm has denied media reports that said the Jack Ma-owned company is considering selling its stake in Paytm amid tensions between India and China and the growing competition it is facing here.
“The Reuters story is untrue. We are disappointed that Reuters decided to run the story based on false information,” the group tweeted Wednesday. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma also said that the information is absolutely false & misleading.
“Our mission is to empower half a billion Indians with digital financial services and pursue the vast opportunity presented by the digital financial revolution in our country. We are seeing a dramatic increase in revenues and acceleration of our path to breakeven,” said a spokesperson of Paytm.
Ant Group’s stake in Paytm is worth about $4.8 billion. The Reuters; report, which has inputs from four people said that financial details of the possible transaction have not been firmed up and Ant Group has not launched a formal sale process yet. The worsening diplomatic relations between India and China in
the past few months could have triggered such a move, it said.