2024 has been a year of turmoil for One97 Communications Ltd., the owner of Paytm. In February, the fintech company saw the exit of six mutual funds. While six other funds reduced their stakes sharply, as per an article from Business Standard.
The mutual funds that completely exited from Paytm include Bajaj Finserv MF with 2.1 lakh shares, Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund with 15.16 lakh shares, Quant Mutual Fund with 6.13 lakh shares, JM Financial MF with 1.67 lakh shares, Union MF with 1.15 lakh shares, and Baroda BNP Paribas MF with 17,000 shares.
Mutual funds that slashed their investment in the fintech platform are Motilal Oswal MF, which spearheaded the selling surge by offloading 27.14 lakh shares worth Rs 113 crore, trailed by Aditya Birla Sun Life and Mahindra Manulife MF. Both companies sold over 15 lakh shares valued at Rs 63 crore.
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Other mutual funds include UTI, Franklin Templeton, Quant, and Nippon, as per Moneycontrol. Highlighting concerns over the company’s future viability, Paytm was downgraded by brokerage firm Macquarie.
“PayTM faces a serious risk of customer exodus, which significantly jeopardises its monetisation and business model,” the firm said. It also downgraded the firm’s stock to ‘underperform’ and reduced its target price to ₹275 from ₹650.
After the RBI imposed restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank on January 31, its stock fell over 50 per cent. At the time of publishing this copy, the company’s stock was trading at Rs 351 on the NSE. This is a 5 per cent drop from the previous close.
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