Nikhil Vora sells entire stake of One97 Communications to Alibaba

Former IDFC Securities star equity analyst Nikhil Vora has sold his entire stake in One97 Communications, Paytm's parent company, to Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings, raking in about Rs 150 crore on his six year-old investment.

That's more than 75 times in returns from the sale of the 0.35% stake or 1,60,000 shares of One97 Communications that Vora owned.

The transaction was part of a larger secondary share sale round that had institutional investors Saama Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Reliance Capital also selling their holdings in One97 to Alibaba and its payment affiliate Alipay.

The Chinese companies together now own about 45% in One97 Communications, up from about 41%.

Vora, who confirmed the development, had picked up the stake in One97 after its aborted initial public offering in 2011 as the company sought to transition from a mobile value-added services provider to a mobile internet firm.

The secondary sales peg One97's pre-money valuation at about $7 billion. The company is in talks to raise $1.4-1.9 billion from Japan's SoftBank at a valuation of $8-9 billion.

Vora now plans to launch a second venture fund, the size of which he declined to disclose, and a Rs 250-crore public markets fund focused on the consumer market in two to three months.

His investment firm's maiden fund, Sixth Sense India Opportunities-1, has made eight investments and counts Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) as its main investor. Some of Sixth Sense's recent investments include LEAP India, a Mumbai-based supply chain solutions company, and Soothe Healthcare, which makes the Paree brand sanitary napkins.

Vora said, "Six companies in our portfolio have already seen a new round at a higher valuation."