MUMBAI | MONDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2019 COMPANIES 5 . < Expedite operationalisation of 110 additional raises a billion dollars blocks or return them: Govt tells Coal India PRESS TRUST OF INDIA it, and whether extraction The ministry “emphasised New Delhi, 24 November from these coal blocks is tech- on quick operationalisation of no-economically feasible, the all of these blocks, otherwise at a valuation of $16 billion The coal ministry has asked official added. CIL may return them to the state-owned Coal The government Ministry of Coal for their allot- India (CIL) to either The firm had was told that of the ment/ auction to other agen- Ant Financial and SoftBank back it with full force; money will go for expansion in small cities, towns expedite the opera- earlier said that 110 additional CIL cies,” the official said. CIL tionalisation of 110 it will produce blocks, 50 were accounts for over 80 per cent of KARAN CHOUDHURY and trust,” promises Sharma. additional blocks 750 million explored, 41 were domestic coal output. & NEHA ALWADHI Paytm says it now serves mer- allotted to it or tonnes of coal under exploration The state-owned firm had Bengaluru/New Delhi, 24 November chants in a little over 2,000 cities and return the mines to in the next and balance 19 were earlier said that it will produce towns, in 650 districts. the government, an financial year partly/regionally 750 million tonnes of coal in the n a mega funding round, Paytm, official said. explored. next financial year. the country’s top financial No deep discounts The coal ministry recently Further, out of 50 explored The PSU will further pro- Itechnology entity, has raised a bil- While its competition, including enquired from the PSU about blocks, project reports of 25 duce 1 billion tonnes of coal by lion dollars (~7,200 crore), at a valua- Google Pay and PhonePe, are spend- the operational status of the blocks have been prepared, the FY2024, Coal Minister Pralhad tion of $16 billion, from existing ing massively on cashbacks, Paytm additional blocks allotted to coal ministry was informed. Joshi had said. shareholders Ant Financial, Softbank says it will use this ~10,000 crore to Vision Fund and also new investors, add as many small merchants and including funds and accounts businesses as possible into its fold. advised by T Rowe Price Associates, “We are not that much in P2P Khan Market among others. (peer-to-peer). We will continue to Discovery Capital, an existing double down and spend aggressively world’s 20th shareholder, also participated in the more into better IoT devices, so that it round. Paytm plans to invest ~10,000 helps us in signing up small mer- most expensive crore over the next three years, with chants. Our primary business model is the stated aim of expanding its serv- merchant payments and the larger retail location ices in tier-III cities and smaller towns. part of the funds would be spent With this funding round, the Vijay there,” he added. Delhi’s upscale Khan Market Shekhar Sharma-led fintech giant has THE PAYTM JUGGERNAUT While Paytm faces stiff competi- has moved up one position to become a top-tier Asian digital firm, PAYTM INVESTORS: tion from these players, it has main- become the world’s 20th most much ahead of others. In this round, $2.5 $16 tained its position as the biggest pay- expensive retail location, the company made a $1-billion equity SoftBank Group, SoftBank Vision ments player in the country. This according to global property closure, where SoftBank Vision Fund Fund, Ant Financial (Alipay), billion billion funding round, believe sector experts, consultant Cushman & (SVF) invested $200 million, Jack Ma’s , SAIF Partners, will help reinforce that. Wakefield. Ant Financial added $400 million and and Berkshire Hathaway TOTAL FUNDS RAISED VALUATION In its latest report ‘Main the balance amount came from T Rowe ‘Not going public’ Streets Across the World 2019’, Price and Discovery, among others. Expanding the reach of its financial the consultant said that Khan This has happened in a climate ital financial services company,” acceptability, using its QR-code tech- services seems the main focus area market is ranked 20th in the where investors are not making big founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma told nology to shops and retailers. The for the company and its backers. list of the most expensive bets on companies and SoftBank is Business Standard. company now plans to add a host of Sharma said there are no plan of going retail locations with an annu- still reeling from the WeWork Initial Talks for the new Internet of Things public, as of now. “There is no com- al rent of $243 per sq ft. Public Offer debacle. Till now, Paytm funding round started (IoT) devices to the mitment that we have made for going Last year, Khan market has raised a little over $2.5 billion in last year in December. Paytm has raised a mix, enabling small public. We have clearly said that we was at 21st place with a rent of . Proceeds from the lat- The company has since little over $2.5 bn merchants in towns to want the financial services business to $237 per sq ft a year. est round would be directed towards had several rounds of in investments. more easily accept digi- (first) take off. Paytm has been able to Causeway Bay in Hong Kong further expanding it’s payment and discussion with its Proceeds from the tal payment. build a business that is contribution retains the number one rank- financial services business. investors. The existing latest round “We are adding phys- positive; we are since last year getting ing, commanding an annual “Paytm is a great opportunity. We ones were interested in would be directed ical devices, IoT-based into financial services,” he added. rent of $2,745 per sq ft. New are addressing the India opportunity raising their stakes to towards further devices, which will According to the company, Paytm York’s Upper 5th Avenue is at the best possible way. I think the very fuel the next level of expanding it’s enable QR payments, Payments Bank has around 50 million second position ($2,250 per business model of acquiring cus- expansion. payment and card payments. Devices accounts and is among the few man- sq ft), followed by London’s tomers and small businesses and “Talks started almost financial services and IoT-led payment dated by the ministry of electronics New Bond Street ($1,714 per bringing them to the formal financial two board meetings business solutions would become and information technology to drive sq ft) and Avenue des system is viable and our investors back, sometime in an important part in our the highest targets for merchant Champs Elysees in Paris understand that. India is underserved December. When we next level of journey. We acquisition and digital transactions. ($1,478 per sq ft). when it comes to financial services had the Tokyo board meeting in have been doing beta tests of some of Its financial services firm, Paytm Via Montenapoleone in and this will be used to September (this year), we concluded our IoT devices, which are proving Money, is now one of the largest con- Milan, Italy ranks fifth with expand in that direction; our the terms and the agreement hap- quite successful. Payment driven by tributors of new Systematic an annual rent of $1,447 per investors believe in that goal…Paytm pened,” added Sharma. mobile phone and QR code is taking Investment Plans to the mutual funds sq ft, the report said. The rank- is reaching its monetisation phase, the next leap, where merchants will segment. It has already received ings are based on rentals dur- where other financial services in due IoT focus have many device options that will approval to launch stock broking, ing the second quarter of 2019 course will start bringing in revenue, In its first phase of growth, Paytm help them to avoid fraud, scale (up) demateralisation services and calendar year. so it becomes a story of a mature dig- brought in low-cost digital payments business systems and bring efficiency National Pension System services. PTI