Bharti Enterprises Founder and Chairman Sunil Mittal is in early talks to fold Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank in a stock deal.

Mittal is seeking to purchase a stake in Paytm as part of the deal, including by buying shares of the fintech company from other stockholders, Bloomberg reported Friday evening citing unnamed sources.

The report added that the talks are in the early stages and Airtel and Paytm may not reach a deal.

Shares of One97 Communications Ltd, Paytm’s parent company, ended Friday up 2.55% on BSE at Rs 622.00 apiece, while the benchmark Sensex index shed nearly 142 points to close at 59,463.93.

Airtel Payments Bank had 129 million customers and had turned profitable in the financial year 2021-22.