Paytm parent One 97 Communications' loss doubles to Rs 4,217 crore

One97 Communications banks on its services, other businesses to improve

Paytm parent One 97 Communications’ consolidated loss more than doubled in the financial year ended March owing to capital expenditure on brand and business activity, but said it was going to focus more on its services and other businesses to improve turnover. Loss for 2018-19 (FY19) more than doubled to Rs 4,217.20 crore, compared with Rs 1,604.34 crore in the year-ago period.

One 97 in its annual report said its total revenue on a consolidated basis rose to Rs 3,579.67 crore in FY19 from Rs 3,309.61 crore a year ago. 

“The company is focusing on strengthening its position in various business segments such as Payments Bank, insurance and insurance broking, travel ticketing, hotel, and mobile wallet services and that would result in better turnover in coming financial years,” Paytm's parent said. 

The company has moved from being a mobile wallet business to becoming a one-stop shop for all kinds of bill payments, payment gateway aggregator services, ticket services, utility bills payments, and insurance and hotel booking services.

One 97 also has units of Subsidiary of One97 Communications Singapore in countries like Ivory Coast, South Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, and the US. 

A Paytm spokesperson said, “For the last two years, we have been investing $1 billion each year to expand digital payments eco-system in our country. We will further invest about $3 billion in the next two years to scale the same. We believe India is at the inflection point of digital payments and Paytm’s sole focus is towards solving the merchant payments & offering them financial services. We will invest Rs 20,000 crore in the next two years towards achieving this.”

Business Standard has earlier reported that Paytm Mall is integrating its offline merchant base with international sellers on a single platform in a bid to take on competition. 

During the year, founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s cumulative shareholding in the company remained at 15.73 per cent. Its largest investor continued to be Alipay Singapore E-Commerce, with 30.49 per cent cumulative shareholding, followed by SVF India Holding (Cayman) with about 19.69 per cent shares, SAIF III Mauritius Company (13.02 per cent), and Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce (7.70 per cent).

In July, international e-commerce player eBay had bought a 5.5 per cent stake in Paytm Mall. While the deal size was not revealed, estimates suggested eBay invested $160 million in Paytm Mall, which is valued at $3 billion. The annual report said Amitabh Kumar Singhal, Kabir Misra, and Saurabh Jalan resigned or ceased to be directors as on March 1. Singhal, a former Google and Uber executive, had been on the board of Paytm since 2016.