China's Alibaba-owned company Antfin, which holds 9.85% stake in One 97 Communications, has reportedly offloaded 4% stake in the fintech worth $246 million through block deals.

The sale, completed at a price of Rs 823.10 ($9.69) a share, was equivalent to a 4% stake in Paytm, and the final price was a 5% discount to Paytm's closing share price on Monday of Rs 866.05 rupees, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters.

Antfin, the second largest shareholder in One 97 Communications, has been gradually reducing its stake in Paytm as part of regulatory pressures. In August 2023, Ant Group transferred about 44% of its stake in One 97 Communications to founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a move seen as an effort to reduce the Chinese company’s ownership in the fintech giant.

After the August 2023 transaction, a top Paytm official had told the author of this story at the time that Antfin’s equity in Paytm had been converted into debt in Resilient, and Sharma would pay interest to Antfin on this until maturity. "Vijay has got enough timeline where he can arrange for the money and pay. Antfin is doing a favour on us, and the timeline is in the number of tens of years," the official had said.

This marks one of the major sell-offs in Paytm over the past two years. The Noida-based fintech has earlier seen exit of its two investors -- Berkshire Hathaway and SoftBank Group.