Reliance Industries-owned
Jio Financial
Services (JFSL) has clarified that it is not in talks with troubled One 97 Communications to acquire
Paytm wallet
. "We clarify that the news item is speculative and we have not been in any negotiations in this regard,"
JFSL
said in a regulatory filing late in the night. "We have always made and will continue to make disclosures in compliance with our obligations under the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015," the statement further added.
Jio Financial clarification came after it was asked by stock exchange BSE to comment on a report that appeared on Hindustan Times.com stating that the NBFC is in talks with One 97 to acquire the wallet business.
Following the report, shares of the NBFC, which demerged from parent entity RIL and listed on stock exchanges last year, ended 14% higher at Rs 289 on BSE.
The bourse has also asked Paytm to clarify on the news report. Its reply is awaited.
Earlier in the day, another report said that while Jio has been in talks since last November, discussions with HDFC Bank began just ahead of RBI's ban on Paytm Payments Bank. According to the report, Jio may also offer to acquire Paytm Payments Bank.
Paytm shares have been in a free fall ever since RBI imposed a ban on Paytm Payments Bank from offering all kinds of banking services for non-compliance. Paytm shares have fallen 42% in just 3 days and eroded Rs 20,500 crore worth of investor wealth in the process. The stock ended Monday's session at Rs 438.35 on BSE, another all-time low.
The regulator is also said to be considering cancelling the banking licence as well on possible money laundering and know-your-customer (KYC) violations at Paytm.
RBI also found KYC checks for hundreds of thousands of customers were missing, and some of the accounts were either owned by individuals with past issues with enforcement agencies or had abnormal balances, amounting to crores of rupees in some cases. The central bank has flagged multiple instances of a single permanent account number being used to open more than 1,000 accounts.
Security agencies are looking at the possibility of the entity being used as a front to launder money, ET had reported earlier.
Paytm has, however, denied reports that neither the company nor its founder and CEO are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges or forex regulations.
"We would like to reiterate that the Company and its associate Paytm Payments Bank Limited are not the subject matter of any such investigation. Such media reports are entirely misleading, baseless and malicious, which harm the interests of all our stakeholders," Paytm said.
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