SEBI nod to PhonePe’s ₹12,000 crore IPO: Existing investors to sell their stake; This will be the second biggest IPO among digital payment companies.

PhonePe, the largest company in the digital payment and UPI market, will soon launch its IPO. For this the company has got approval from the stock market regulator SEBI. After this approval, the company will soon file its updated draft paper (DRHP).

This IPO could be worth around ₹12,000 crore ($1.35 billion). The total valuation of the company is estimated at $ 15 billion (about ₹ 1.33 lakh crore). PhonePe will enter the market completely through Offer for Sale (OFS). This means that the company will not issue any new shares, rather its existing investors will sell their stake.

This will be India’s second largest IPO among digital payment companies after Paytm (₹ 18,000 crore) in 2021.

Preparation to raise ₹12,000 crore from IPO

Through IPO, big investors like Walmart, Tiger Global and Microsoft can sell their total 10% stake. Walmart currently holds more than 73% stake in the company. For this IPO, the company has appointed big banks like Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citi Bank, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan as its advisors.

Number 1 company in UPI market is PhonePe

PhonePe’s biggest strength is its dominance in the UPI market. The company’s share in the total digital payments of the country is about 45 percent. Its nearest rival Google Pay is at second place with 35% share.

PhonePe processes around 1000 crore transactions every month. The total value of these transactions is more than ₹12 lakh crore every month. The company currently has more than 53 crore registered users.

PhonePe converted itself into a public company in April

On April 16, PhonePe converted itself from a private to a public company. This process is part of the legal process required for listing in the Indian stock exchange. PhonePe started planning for IPO in February. Earlier, the company had shifted its headquarters from Singapore to India in December 2022. Along with this, the company had divided its non-payment business into separate subsidiary companies.