Indian IPOs set for crucial tech test

摘要

India is set to host its biggest technology listings this year, in a major test of the domestic market's ability to deliver premium valuations for emerging champions in the capital-hungry sector. Digital payments provider PAYTM is planning a domestic IPO of up to Rs218bn (US$3bn) as early as the end of this year which would be the biggest Indian float ever (ignoring inflation) - beating Coal India's Rs155bn issue in 2010. CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded the company in 2010 as One97 Communications, still its formal name, and its other investors include SoftBank, Ant Financial and Berkshire Hathaway. Paytm has come a long way since a planned Rs1.32bn IPO, also in 2010, fell through because of volatile market conditions. Starting as a simple digital-wallet business, the company has built an integrated payments system for selling mutual funds, insurance, or credit cards. It also operates a payments bank.