The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) plans to diversify its shareholding by on-boarding 131 new partners and raise ₹81.64 crore in equity share capital on a private placement basis. The new partners include one public sector bank, 5 private sector banks, 40 foreign banks, 10 small finance banks (SFBs), 6 payments banks and 80 payments service providers. Entrackr first reported the development on November 9, 2020. In a resolution passed on September 18, the board of NPCI approved to issue 6,50,000 equity shares at a price of ₹1,256 each, aggregating to ₹81.64 crore within a period of 12 months, according to regulatory documents filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. MediaNama has seen copies of the resolution passed by the NPCI's board. At present, the top 10 shareholders of the NPCI include the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HSBC Bank, who together hold a 76.82% shareholding in the umbrella retail payments entity. Further, another 45 smaller banks in total own a 23.18% shareholding in the NPCI. Proposed equity raise This marks a significant development in the NPCI's history as so far only banks have owned the entity since its inception. With the proposed equity share raise retail payments companies that have build services on top of NPCI's platforms are going to acquire a stake in the NPCI alongside large global banking giants. As part of the proposed raising of equity capital, some of new banks that would be shareholders in…
