Paytm continues board rejig; Neeraj Arora joins
BENGLAURU: Ipo-bound One97 Communications Ltd (OCL) continued to restructure its board with former Whatsapp business head Neeraj Arora reappointed as an additional director, more than three years after he exited the payments firm.
Also, Mukul Arora, partner at Paytm’s early investor Elevation Capital--formerly SAIF Partners--has resigned from OCL’S board effective July 7, showed company filings with the corporate affairs ministry. OCL is the parent of payments firm Paytm.
Arora has been replaced by Elevation Capital’s operating partner and chief financial officer, Vivek Mathur, who has been appointed as an alternate director to Paytm’s board.
According to media reports, Arora, who served on Paytm’s board between 2015 and 2018, had reportedly resigned, after founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma publicly criticised Whatsapp’s unified payments interface (Upi)-based payment model.
Arora and Mathur’s appointment follows the reshuffling of OCL’S board earlier this month ahead of its planned Novemberend
public debut. The company replaced Chinese nationals with Indian and US nationals. The changes included Douglas Lehman Feagin, senior vice president, at Ant Group, who joined Paytm’s board replacing Ant Group chairman and chief executive officer, Jing Xiandong.
The company also appointed Ash Lilani, managing partner at Saama Capital, as independent director. Michael Yuen Jen Yao from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Todd Anthony Combs, investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway, retired by rotation from OCL’S board on 30 June. Both Yao and Combs were appointed to One97’s board in 2019.
On Monday, Paytm received shareholder approval at an emergency general meeting to raise up to ₹12,000 crore through a fresh issue of shares. Mint reported that the company will raise $268 million as part of its pre-ipo fundraise.
The primary issue is solely to infuse growth capital in the 11-year-old entity, people familiar with the matter told Mint earlier.
Paytm’s long-time investors, Softbank and Ant Financial are expected to offload at least ₹8,600 crore worth of shares, as part of the listing process, Mint reported earlier citing people familiar with the matter.
Further details of the IPO are expected to emerge after OCL issues its draft prospectus later this week.
In the draft prospectus, the company is also expected to announce its nine-member leadership team including Madhur Deora, president and group chief financial officer; Vikas Garg, CFO; Renu Satti, head of offline payments; Bhavesh Gupta, head of Paytm’s lending business; and Harinderpal Singh Takhar, chief executive officer, Paytm Labs.