UPI payments app PhonePe said on March 16 that it has postponed the process of its public market listing for some time due to the current deteriorating geopolitical situation and market fluctuations. CEO and Founder Sameer Nigam said in a statement that we sincerely hope that peace will soon return to all the affected areas. We are fully committed to public listing in India. The Walmart-backed company said it will restart the listing process once there is some stability in the global capital markets.
When was the approval given?
A source close to the matter said that due to the US-Israel war, there has been panic in the stock markets around the world, and this IPO of $ 1.3 billion, which would have brought the valuation of the company to $ 15 billion, required much more liquidity (cash) than the current market. This Bengaluru-based fintech company had received approval for its initial public offer (IPO) from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Segi) on January 20. According to the Money Control report, the valuation of PhonePe is expected to be around $ 15 billion from this offer, and the company was planning to raise around Rs 12,000 crore ($ 1.35 billion) entirely through OFS (Offer for Sale).
45 percent market share
The public listing of this Bengaluru-based payments giant could have become the second largest listing in the ‘new economy’ category after the IPO of its rival company Paytm in late 2021. The valuation of Noida-based Paytm’s IPO was around $20 billion, and the IPO size was around Rs 18,000 crore. PhonePe has a market share of about 45 percent in mobile payments platform UPI, while its nearest rival Google Pay has a market share of about 35 percent. More than 85 percent of the country’s digital payments are processed through the UPI platform.
Transaction worth Rs 12 lakh crore
The continuous growth of this platform, new ways of use and tremendous innovation make UPI an unmatched platform for digital payments in the country. PhonePe processes approximately 10 billion transactions every month, the total value of which is more than Rs 12 lakh crore. The company also has many other verticals (business areas), which include share market trading app ‘share.market’, lending platform and insurance policy sales etc.