PhonePe willbuy back ESOPs worth 135cr

Bengaluru: PhonePe, the digital payments platform of Walmart-owned Flipkart, is buying back employee stock options (

ESOPs

) worth Rs 135 crore. The company’s founders will not be participating in the buyback while the top leadership can sell up to 10% of the vested stock. All other employees can sell up to 25%.Last year, the company had launched a Rs 1,500-crore

ESOP

programme that was open to all its employees with a minimum annual salary of Rs 3.5 lakh. “Almost 75% of our current workforce is eligible to participate in the current buyback offer, and for most it’s the first time in their careers that they’ve either owned ESOPs or had a chance to liquidate them,” said

Manmeet Sandhu

, HR head at PhonePe.