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Global investing firm SoftBank Investment Advisers’ Managing Partner Munish Varma is exiting the boards of listed Indian fin-techs Paytm and PolicyBazaar, sources privy to the development told BusinessLine.
According to the sources, this announcement will be made by the respective companies soon. Both the companies got listed on the bourses in November last year.
The decision to step down is a part of SoftBank’s larger global strategy to not remain on the boards of listed companies. The plan is to exit within six months of a portfolio company getting listed, as the investing firm doesn’t want to get involved in day-to-day operations of such companies.
Though it is stepping down from the boards, SoftBank will continue to stay invested in Paytm and PolicyBazaar.
Queries sent to SoftBank for comments went unanswered at the time of publishing.
RBI directive
The development comes days after the Reserve Bank of India barred Paytm from adding new customers to its payments bank service. The RBI had also directed the company to appoint an audit firm to audit its IT systems. BusinessLine had reported on Monday that the central bank’s concerns were related to various violations by the payments bank over the past few years. Several discrepancies were allegedly found in following privacy policies and customer acquisition rules, which weren’t solved despite repeated assurances from the payments bank.
On Monday, Paytm’s shares touched an all-time low of ₹662.25 on the BSE in intra-day trade before closing at ₹675.35. This further plunged on Tuesday to close at ₹589.
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