Warren Buffett Owned Berkshire Hathaway Offloads Entire Stake In Indian Fintech Major Paytm Via Bulk Deal

Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathway has sold its entire stake in India's leading payments and financial services company Paytm via the open market for about Rs 1,370 crore. The transaction was done at Rs 877.2 per share.

Berkshire Hathaway's unit BH International Holdings offloaded close to 1.56 crore shares in the fintech major. As of September end, Berkshire's BH International Holdings owned a 2.46% stake in Paytm.

The two buyers in the transaction included two foreign investors Copthall Mauritius Investment and Ghisallo Master Fund. While Copthall picked up a 1.19% stake, Ghisallo Master Fund bought 0.67% in the company.

In today's large block deal, the Buffet-owned investment major booked a loss of over Rs 800 crore, reported CNBC TV18.

In 2018, Buffett invested nearly Rs 2,200 crore ($300 million) to pick up a 2.6% stake in Paytm, valuing the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company at $10-12 billion.

The Indian fintech major has been in focus recently after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made consumer lending norms stricter, asking banks and shadow banks to set aside higher capital buffers.

Today, the share price of One 97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of Paytm, closed 3.23% lower at Rs 893 apiece on BSE. On Friday, the stock saw a spurt in volume by over 9.52 times. The company has a market capitalization of 56,675.17 crore. In the last one year Paytm shares have gained 102.47%, while in this year so far the stock is up 68%.