Paytm more than doubles its ESOP pool ahead of IPO

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Ahead of its IPO (initial public offering), One97 Communications Ltd, which owns Paytm, has decided to expand its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) pool from 24.09 million equity options to 61.09 million options.

The Mint reported that the decision to more than double the ESOP pool was taken after seeking the approval of shareholders in the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on September 2.

The report further said that in last August nearly 166 former and current employees, including Patym’s president Amit Nayyar, who resigned in June this year, were given nearly 1.01 million shares. Nayyar had headed the financial services division at Paytm.

40 employees convert ESOPs

Paytm has a paid-up share capital of 605.93 million, as per the company’s draft IPO documents. According to the newspaper, around 40 current and former Paytm employees converted their ESOPs to 332,360 One97 Communications shares. This included V. Sasiraman, the founder of Chennai-based ticketing startup TicketNew which was acquired in 2018 by Paytm.

Regulatory filing

“The consent of the members is hereby accorded to alter One97 Employee Stock Option Scheme 2019 (ESOP 2019) by increasing the existing ESOP pool from 24,094,280 equity options to 61,094,280 equity options, and such ESOP pool may further be increased/decreased by approval of the board and/or nomination and remuneration committee and/or shareholders of the company,” the Mint reported quoting the latest regulatory filings.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and directors Mark Schwartz and Neeraj Arora together hold nearly 60.55 million shares in Paytm. It also reported that Paytm was in discussion with five lenders including IIFL, ICICI Securities and Edelweiss Capital for a Rs 100 crore credit line to help employees borrow money to exercise their stock options before the company goes public.