Paytm parent One 97 Communications’ quarterly loss nearly halves to Rs 358.4 crore, revenue up 39%

It had reported a quarterly loss of Rs 645.4 crore, for the same period, last year.

On a sequential basis, losses for the firm more than doubled from Rs 167.5 crore for the quarter ending March 31.

Revenue from operations for the payments major stood at Rs 2,341.6 crore for the June quarter, a 39.4% increase on year. Operational revenue growth for the firm, however, fell almost 5% on a sequential basis for the recently concluded quarter.

According to the company, revenue from its payments business was up 31% year on year to Rs 1,414 crore in the quarter ending June 30, and up 10% over the previous quarter.

“Net payment margin has gone up due to increase in net payment processing margin and increase in merchant subscription revenues. Net payment processing margin has further improved and is now at the top end of 7-9 bps (basis points) range due to increase in GMV (gross merchandise value) of non-UPI instruments like EMI and cards, and lower interchange cost for wallet, post interoperability circular by NPCI,” said One 97 as a part of its commentary on the quarterly results.

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Net payment margin is defined as payment revenues less payment processing charges.It also added that revenues from financial services were up 93% to Rs 522 crore in the quarter ending June, from Rs 271 crore for the June quarter last year.

“Until June 2023, 1.06 crore unique borrowers have taken a loan through our platform. In Q1 FY 2024, across our three product offerings (Paytm Postpaid, Personal Loans, and Merchant Loans), loans amounting to ₹14,845 crore were distributed through the Paytm platform,” One 97 said commenting about its lending business. .

The company also has approved the appointment of Sunil Kumar Bansal as the company secretary and compliance officer, it informed the exchanges late Friday evening.

In a filing on Thursday night, the company also said that it has granted 17,06,829 stock options under ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) 2019 as determined by its nomination and remuneration committee (NRC).

Each stock option is convertible into one fully paid up equity share having face value of Rs 1 each. The exercise price is set at Rs 9 per stock option.

Additionally, the company has also canceled 53,250 stock options, in accordance with the terms and conditions of ESOP 2019, it said in the filing.

Earlier in May last year, Paytm had granted 3.97 million new stock options to employees under the One97 Employees Stock Option Scheme 2019 (‘Esop 2019’).

The news around granting stock options to employees comes when Paytm’s stock price has shown an upswing in the recent months. Its current 52-week high is Rs 915. This is a strong revival from its 52-week low of Rs 439.

The share price of One 97 closed at Rs 843.5 apiece on Friday on BSE, down almost 1% from previous close.

The payments major is now betting on credit to revive its business and become profitable.

Earlier this month, Softbank, one of Paytm’s big backers, sold an additional 2% stake in One 97 Communications, the parent of Paytm, in a series of transactions, generating $180-$200 million, ET had reported.

The move brought the Japanese investment major’s stake in the payments company to below 10% for the first time.

Earlier in February this year, China’s Alibaba group sold its entire 3.4% stake in One97 Communications to investors including Morgan Stanley.