Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Eyes India Mobile-Payments Firm
27 Agosto 2018 - 7:48AM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Newley Purnell
NEW DELHI -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is in
talks to invest in India's largest mobile-payments firm, according
to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Buffett's conglomerate is set to pour 20 billion to 25
billion rupees ($285 million to $357 million) into One97
Communications Ltd., the parent company of Paytm. The Noida,
India-based firm makes a popular smartphone app that can be used to
pay for everything from movie tickets to auto-rickshaw rides.
Paytm, which says it has more than 300 million users, saw its
usage skyrocket in 2016 when India's government nullified its
largest-denomination notes, a bid to root out tax evasion and
corruption that triggered a cash shortage.
India now has 390 million internet users, more than the U.S. and
second only to China, according to a report last month from
consultancy Bain & Co. Global tech titans are rushing to tap
into the South Asian nation's internet economy, which is growing
quickly as smartphone and mobile data prices fall and hundreds of
millions of people get online for the first time.
Berkshire didn't immediately respond to a request for comment
early Monday morning.
Paytm last year raised $1.4 billion from Japan's SoftBank Group
Corp. Earlier investors include Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd. and its financial-services affiliate, Ant Financial
Services Group.
A SoftBank spokeswoman in India declined to comment
A spokesman for Ant Financial said the company doesn't comment
on "market rumors."
The investment would give Berkshire a 3% to 4% stake in Paytm's
parent, the person said. That would give Paytm, which isn't
profitable, a valuation of more than $10 billion, up from more than
$7 billion when it raised funds from SoftBank last year. A deal
could be announced in the coming weeks, the person said. The talks
were earlier reported by India's Economic Times newspaper.
Berkshire portfolio manager Todd Combs is handling the deal,
according to the person. He is one of four executives, including
India-born Ajit Jain, who the 87-year-old Mr. Buffett has said
handle many day-to-day responsibilities in running the firm.
Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway, which runs a large
insurance operation and has businesses ranging from retail to
railroads, has been searching for profitable ways to spend its more
than $100 billion in cash. Among its biggest stockholdings is Apple
Inc. As of June 30, Berkshire was Apple's second-largest
shareholder after Vanguard Group, holding 4.96% of the tech giant's
stock.
Mr. Buffett earlier this year offered to invest $3 billion in
Uber Technologies Inc., but the two sides couldn't agree on the
terms, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Berkshire made its maiden India venture in 2011, launching an
online insurance distributor that sells Bajaj Allianz General's
products.
"If you'll tell me a wonderful company in India that might be
available for sale, I'll be there tomorrow," Mr. Buffett said last
year in an interview with an Indian television news outlet. "I
think the potential for India is incredible," he said. "It's a lot
of people, a lot of buying power."
Still, asked about his insurance partnership he said, "Sometimes
there have been restrictive laws in terms of the percentage we
could own, and that's a disadvantage. We would like to own 100% of
any business we run."
Paytm "has the capability of becoming a Tencent, and they have
time on their hands," said Satish Meena, an analyst at Forrester
Research, referring to Chinese internet behemoth Tencent Holdings
Ltd.
Mr. Meena said Patym could benefit from not just Berkshire's
cash, but from their vast expertise, as the Indian firm is eager to
move beyond mobile payments and offer services such as
insurance.
--Liza Lin and Nicole Friedman contributed to this article.
Write to Newley Purnell at newley.purnell @wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 27, 2018 08:33 ET (12:33 GMT)
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