Delhi High Court on Friday heard arguments by a Former Director of Paytm, seeking a stay on its Initial Public Offer (IPO), but the court decided against halting the fintech major’s plans. The IPO is scheduled for November 8.

Ashok Kumar Saxena had moved the Delhi high court citing a “serious shareholding” dispute with Paytm and Founder – Vijay Shekhar Sharma. He served as the Director on the board of One97 Communciations, Paytm’s parent company, from 2001 to 2004.

As per his petition, Ashok Saxena claims that he is entitled to 55 percent of Paytm’s equity shares. The Former Director bases his claim on his investment of Rs. 13 lakhs in Paytm in 2000. He argued that he had red flagged the shareholding dispute to not just the market regulator Sebi, but had also lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police.

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In his petition he argued that Sebi’s listing norms required the disclosure of the ongoing “shareholder dispute”. While seeking a stay on the IPO, Saxena’s counsel argued that sufficient disclosure had not been made.

Sebi, appearing before the Delhi high court, had submitted that it had advised Paytm to make a few amendments to the disclosures to comply with the norms. Sebi added that Paytm had agreed and implemented the amendments advised by the market regulator.

Sebi submitted that with the revised disclosures, Paytm’s offer documents were in compliance with the listing norms.

Taking into account Sebi’s arguments, Delhi high court refused to grant the interim relief of a stay on the Paytm's IPO. However, the high court has agreed to hear the former director’s plea and has issued notice to Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Sebi. The high court will now hear the case on January 13, 2022.

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Oct 29, 2021 9:11 PM IST