These investors and mutual fund schemes didn’t see Paytm crisis coming as…

Many retail investors, mutual fund schemes and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) did not see the Paytm catastrophe hitting them. So they did what they thought was right: raised their stake in the stock in the December quarter. But in just three days as the Paytm stock fell 42%, 11 lakh retail shareholders, 514 FIIs and 97 mutual fund schemes are now trapped, Economic Times reported. In the December quarter, shareholding pattern shows that Mutual Fund ownership in Paytm rose from 2.79% to 4.99% quarter-on-quarter.

FII holding also rose 280 bps to 63.72% while retail ownership went up 457 bps to 12.85%, it was reported. Top FII investors who own over 1% stake each in Paytm include BNP Paribas Arbitrage and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The top investor in the stock was Mirae Mutual Fund as it owned a 2.51% stake at the end of the December quarter while Nippon Mutual Fund also owned more than 1% stake in Paytm. As per the report, Ace MF data showed that there were at least 6 mutual fund schemes which had over ₹100 crore exposure in Paytm. Around 40 of them had less than ₹10 crore exposure, it added.

Top mutual fund schemes that invested in Paytm are: Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund ( ₹430 crore), Mirae Asset Focused Fund ( ₹269 crore), Quant Mid Cap Fund ( ₹134 crore), Nippon India Large Cap Fund ( ₹127 crore) and Mirae Asset ELSS Tax Saver Fund ( ₹105 crore).

But RBI’s ban on Paytm Payments Bank over non-compliance sent the stock in a tailspin which was then worsened by the report about the possibility of investigation by the Enforcement Directorate on money-laundering and KYC norms violation.