Berkshire Hathaway’s Todd Combs to join Paytm board
Todd Combs, investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway and the potential successor to Warren Buffett, is all set to join Paytm’s board of directors. The announcement first came in August last year.
Tenzin Norzom
Monday June 10, 2019 , 2 min Read
Hedge fund manager and current investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway, Todd Combs is expected to join India’s mobile payments major Paytm as a board member, two sources aware of the discussion told YourStory.
An RoC regarding Combs’ appointment is expected to be filed this week.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, Paytm, with Todd Combs, investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway
The news around Todd Combs joining Paytm's board of directors first came in August 2018 when Berkshire Hathaway invested around $300 million in Paytm’s parent One97 Communications for a valuation of about $10-12 billion.
Along with Combs, Yao Michael, Senior VP and Head - Corporate Finance at Alibaba Group, will also join the board, replacing Joseph Tsai, founding member and Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group, said a Times of India report.
Paytm (One97 Communications) was Berkshire’s first investment in an Indian technology firm and the transaction was led by Todd Combs himself. Warren Buffett, who runs the conglomerate, was not personally involved in the transaction.
While speaking about Berkshire’s investment in Paytm last year, Todd spoke highly of the Noida-based payments company, stating,
“I have been impressed by Paytm and am excited about being a part of its growth story as it looks to transform payments and financial services in India.”
Prior to joining Berkshire Hathaway in 2010, Combs was the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Member of Castle Point Capital Management, an investment partnership he founded in 2005 to manage capital for endowments, family foundations and institutions.
An MBA graduate from Columbia Business School, Combs was appointed board member of the largest bank in the US - JP Morgan Chase in 2016.
Apart from Todd Combs, other board members at One97 Communications Ltd. Include, SAIF Partners’ Ravi Adusumalli; Ant Financial CEO Eric Jing; Founder and Managing Partner of law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas - Pallavi Shroff; Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs Group and Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific Mark Schwartz; along with Managing Partner at SoftBank Munish Varma.
Just last week, Paytm said that it had achieved a Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of more than $50 billion while clocking 5.5 billion transactions in FY19.
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