The Paytm IPO, which has closed recently, is the biggest initial public offer in India as of yet. And not surprisingly, this move will add new millionaires to India’s list, when the public offer gets listed on the stock markets next week. Ex-employee Siddharth Pandey, who had bought several shares of the company back when he was there, is among one such millionaire the IPO is going to mint, as per a repot by Reuters. Despite all this, the software engineer had to once battle his father’s prejudices to join fintech firm Paytm, which was just in the process of building its ground, nine years ago.
As per the Reuters report quoting an anonymous source, about 350 current and ex-employees will each have a net worth of at least Rs 10 million though India’s biggest ever public issue, set to be listed at the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. Like Pandey, may will become millionaires when this happens.
Though Pandey is no longer an employee at Paytm, he tells Reuters that his seven-year stint with the fintech group has left him with tens of thousands of shares at the company. The engineer now works at another startup in India, which he has refused to disclose.
The 39-year-old however declined to give details about his finances regarding the shares which were sold at Rs 2,150 during the initial public offer last week. He just said that he would be worth more than a million in the upcoming days.
But things have not always been a cakewalk for Pandey. Recalling his father’s reaction after learning that his son had joined Paytm in 2013, he has told Reuters, “My dad was very demotivating. He said, ‘What is this Paytime?! For once work in a company people know about,’ my father said.”
“Now he (my father) is obviously very happy. He has just asked me to stay grounded,” the software engineer, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, said while speaking to Reuters.
In 2013, when Pandey joined the company, Paytm was a relatively small firm trying to make its mark in the Indian market. Starting from a small payments firm with fewer than 1,000 employees, Paytm today is over 10,000 workers strong. The company also offers a range of services from banking, shopping, movie and travel ticketing to gaming.
To celebrate, Pandey says he took his father on a five-day luxury trip to Udaipur, a popular tourist destination in the desert state of Rajasthan in September, spending roughly Rs 4,00,000, Reuters said in its report.
“Paytm has always been a generous paymaster. Vijay (Sharma, the Paytm founder) has always wanted that people make money, they move up in life,” Pandey told the news agency.
“Part of the money goes into my retirement fund and I will use a large part of it for my kids’ education,” he added.
Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications launch its mega initial public offering (IPO) on Monday, November 8. The leading financial services and solutions company is planning to raise a whopping Rs 18,300 crore from its maiden offer. Paytm IPO is the largest public offering in India so far. Paytm IPO was open for subscription from November 1-3. The price band had been fixed at Rs 2,080 – 2,150 per share.
The offer was a combination of fresh issue of Rs 8,300 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 10,000 crore by selling shareholders including founder and investors.
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