One97 Communications, the parent of Paytm, is reportedly in talks with sovereign wealth funds and financial firms to become anchor investors in its initial public offering (IPO).

In July, the company had filed draft papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for the country’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) of Rs 16,600 crore. The issue comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs 8,300 crore and offer for sale by the existing shareholders of up to Rs 8,300 crore.

One97 Communications had said that it also retains the option to undertake a pre-IPO placement of Rs 2,000 crore, subject to relevant approvals. If this placement is completed, the fresh issue size will be reduced to that extent. The share float is awaiting nod from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

According to a report in Bloomberg, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Singapore’s GIC Pte are among the firms that are looking to bid in the offering.

It added that global financial firms such as BlackRock Inc and Nomura Holdings are also in discussions to bid for the IPO.

Paytm was launched in 2009 as a mobile first digital payments platform to enable cashless payments. It began with assisting bill payments and mobile top ups and then set up the ‘Paytm Wallet’ in 2014. Subsequently, it has ventured into financial services such as mobile banking, lending, insurance and wealth management services.

Paytm has reported the highest gross merchandise value of Rs 4.03 lakh crore in the payments industry.

According to its draft papers, the company posted revenues of Rs 3,232 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 3,281 crore in 2019-20, which fell to Rs 2,802 crore in 2020-21.

Though it is loss making, the net losses have come down from Rs 4,230 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 1,701 crore in 2020-21.