PAYTM FOUNDER TO GET ESOPS FOR 1ST TIME

NEW DELHI: Ipo-bound Paytm’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Vijay Shekhar Sharma will get employee stock options for the first time as a reward to drive the company into a leadership position in the digital payments and financial services space, according to sources.

The employee stock ownership plan (Esop) for Shekhar comes when the company is wrapping up the final number of shares that will become part of its proposed ₹16,600 crore initial public offering (IPO).

“The Esops that have been allocated to employees is from 4% equity holding of Sharma. This is the first time he will get Esop as a reward for taking the company to the leadership position in digital payments and financial services domain,” a source aware of the development said. However, it could not be ascertained if Sharma will convert the Esops into shares for monetising them. An e-mail query sent to Paytm did not elicit any reply.

Paytm had last week given a final call to employees, key managerial personnel and shareholders to submit shares that they want to monetise in the upcoming issue. The last day for employees to exercise their Esops was September 22.

For ‘Designated Persons’ to sell or buy shares, the deadline is September 27, while for KMPS (Key Management Personnel) and selling shareholders the date was September 22. As per Registrar of Companies (ROC) filing, as many as 220 Paytm employees will convert their Esops into shares. According to the sources, the company expects a valuation of around ₹1.47 lakh crore at the time of listing.