Emirati billionaire Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties, is expanding his technology investments into financial services after his Abu Dhabi-based vehicle agreed to acquire a 49% stake in Paytm’s Middle East payments arm, according to a regulatory filing.
Paytm said its subsidiary, Paytm Arab Payments LLC, had approved the allocation of shares representing a 49% stake to Global Opportunity Holdings Limited, a special purpose vehicle owned by Alabbar, for 190 million rupees ($2.1 million).
Following the transaction, Paytm Arab Payments will cease to be a wholly owned subsidiary of One97 Communications, Paytm’s parent, and will become a step-down subsidiary, with Paytm retaining a 51% majority stake.
The investment marks Alabbar’s latest move to broaden his technology portfolio beyond real estate and e-commerce into fintech. Alabbar is also the founder of noon, one of the Middle East’s largest e-commerce platforms, which operates across multiple regional markets and has played a central role in the region’s digital retail ecosystem.
Paytm is one of India’s largest financial technology companies, serving around 270 million monthly active users and more than 38 million merchants. Its platform supports mobile payments, QR-based transactions, point-of-sale systems and a growing range of financial services, making it one of the world’s most widely used digital payments ecosystems.
Paytm Arab Payments was incorporated to expand Paytm’s merchant payments and financial services technology in the UAE, where governments and businesses are accelerating the shift toward cashless transactions and digital commerce.
The board of Paytm Arab Payments also approved the incorporation of two new wholly owned subsidiaries in Indonesia and Luxembourg, with initial investments of about 2.5 billion rupees ($30 million), as Paytm explores selective international expansion, the filing said.
Alabbar, best known for developing landmark projects such as the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall through Emaar, has in recent years increasingly focused on technology-led businesses. The Paytm deal signals a further extension of that strategy into fintech, aligning a regional digital commerce operator with one of the world’s largest payments platforms.
