A smartphone with the Paytm logo is placed on a laptop in this illustration.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Bengaluru: One97 Communications, the parent company of fintech platform Paytm, on Friday reported cutting its losses by 48 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 292 crore, in the quarter ended September 2023, against a loss of Rs 571 crore reported in the same quarter last year. Its losses in the first quarter stood at Rs 358 crore.
This follows the company posting a 32 per cent jump YoY in its consolidated revenue which stood at Rs 2,519 crore in this second quarter, up from Rs 1,914 crore reported in the corresponding quarter last year.
Sequentially, its revenue from operations went up 7 per cent compared to Rs 2,341 in the first quarter of the current financial year.
"For Q2 FY24, we continued our momentum with 32 per cent YoY revenue growth, despite some of the revenues getting pushed to Q3 FY 2024. In this financial year, online sales for the festive season will be captured in Q3, whereas in the previous financial year, it was largely in Q2," Paytm said in its filing.
The company reported an ESOP cost of Rs 385 crore in Q2 FY24, and its total expenses for the quarter stood at Rs 2,936 crore, up 14 per cent YoY. Further, the company reported a 64 per cent increase YoY in revenue from financial services to Rs 571 crore.
The jump in revenue can be attributed to a growth in its payments vertical, whose revenue increased 28 per cent YoY to Rs 1,524 crore in the last quarter. The net payment margin was up by nearly 60 per cent to Rs 707 crore.
At the same time, the payments company also expanded its loan portfolio, and its overall loan disbursement was recorded at Rs 16,211 crore, up 122 per cent in the quarter under review. Total number of unique borrowers who have taken a loan through the platform increased by 51 lakh in the last year to 1.18 crore, as per Paytm.
In the second quarter, Paytm’s gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 41 per cent YoY to Rs 4.5 lakh crore.
“Despite no UPI incentives received during the quarter, payment processing margin is at the higher end of 7-9 basis point range due to an increase in GMV of non-UPI instruments like postpaid, EMI and cards, and improvements in payment processing margin on these non-UPI instruments,” the company said.
The fintech firm’s cash balance rose to Rs 8,754 in Q2 FY24, compared to Rs 8,367 reported in the last quarter.
Paytm was trading almost 2 per cent higher on Friday, closing the day at 987.65, with analysts expecting potential for more upside momentum.
“The near-term target would be 1,100 levels with near term support of 890 levels. The RSI is well placed with strength indicated and further upside potential visible,” said Shiju Koothupalakkal, technical research analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher.