One 97 Communications Limited, which owns Paytm, announced on Monday that the auditor of its subsidiary Paytm Payments Services Limited (PPSL), Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC India), had resigned with effect from August 7. With effect from August 7, SR Batliboi & Associates has been appointed as Paytm Payments Services’ statutory auditors, the business announced in an exchange filing.
According to PwC’s resignation letter dated August 7, there has been a change of auditors at the holding company level. As a result, it stated, “keeping in mind the company’s understandable practice of aligning the auditor of Paytm Payments Services with the auditor of the holding company in order to bring in synergies and maintain consistency in the group’s audit process,” “we hereby tender our resignation as the auditor of Paytm Payments Services.”
PwC also stated that it has provided an audit report on the financial accounts for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, dated May 2, 2023. The company issued a restricted review report on the unaudited special purpose interim condensed financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 on July 19, 2023.
PwC India
Earlier in March, Paytm announced that when the existing statutory auditors, PwC, complete their five-year term, it will nominate SRB as the replacement auditors to its shareholders for approval at the next AGM. A listed company is advised to rotate auditors after completing a five-year term under Section 139 (2) of the Companies Act, 2013.
Meanwhile, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has agreed to purchase a 10.30% share in Paytm from Antfin (Netherlands) Holdings BV in a no-cash off-market transaction. The transaction transforms One97 Communications from a corporation dominated by Chinese entities to a firm dominated by Indians.
Antfin will retain the economic rights to the stake being transferred to Sharma. According to the agreement, Sharma would purchase 10.3 percent of Paytm from Antfin through his 100% owned foreign organization Resilient Asset Management BV, making him the company’s top stakeholder with a total interest of 19.42 percent.
Before the purchase, Sharma owned slightly more than 9% of Paytm. In exchange, Resilient Asset will issue debt instrument OCDs (optionally convertible debentures) to Antfin. “As a result, no cash payment will be made for this acquisition, and no pledge, guarantee, or other value assurance will be provided by Sharma, directly or indirectly,” according to a BSE filing.
