Paytm revenue up 1.4% to Rs 3,629 cr; losses decrease 30% to Rs 2,942 cr

One 97 Communications Limited, that owns and operates digital payments firm Paytm reported its consolidated revenues for the financial year 2019-20 as Rs 3,629 crore, a 1.4 per cent increase since the last financial year. However, on a standalone basis, it reported a revenue of Rs 3,351 crore, a 1 per cent fall compared to last year.

The company further reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 2,942 crore during the same fiscal. This is a 30 per cent decrease from the last financial year, showed regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler. The company’s total expenses for the fiscal were reported as Rs 6,226 crore on a consolidated basis.

The company has considered the possible effect that may result due to Covid-19 pandemic on the carrying amount of assets including receivables, investments and goodwill.

The firm allotted a total of 128,015 equity shares to employees as ESOPs (employee stock ownership plan) during FY 2019-20.

The company raised a total capital of about Rs 5,053 crore through equity shares which were allotted via preferential cum private placement basis during the financial year.

The shareholding of ‘Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd’ has decreased to 7.35 per cent from 7.70 per cent. Another shareholder Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V’s shareholding has decreased to 30.33 per cent from 30.41 per cent.

These changes in shareholding were due to the issuance of series G equity shares through private placement cum preferential basis and under the ESOP scheme. However, there is no actual change in the number of the shares held by these shareholders

Also, the shareholding of Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma has decreased to 14.98 per cent compared to 15.73 per cent last year.

After digital payments, financial services is becoming the next big battleground for players such Paytm and its rivals Walmart-owned PhonePe, Amazon and Google. The size of the Indian financial services market could touch around $340 billion in the next few years.

Paytm recently formed a partnership with Suryoday Small Finance Bank to empower MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) with instant digital loans. The company is furthering the cause of financial inclusion by offering instant microloans to businesses that are unable to access financial services from traditional banking players. The firm through this partnership is aiming at disbursing loans to over 1 lakh small businesses in the next 12 months to 18 months.

Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL),  also recently said it has outperformed all major banks in India in terms of the success rate of UPI (unified payments interface) transactions. 

Paytm’s wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Money has also opened stockbroking access for everyone in the country. The company aims to onboard over 1,000,000 investors this fiscal with the majority of them as first-time users from small cities and towns. Its efforts are aligned to drive higher penetration in investing with an easy-to-use product, low pricing (zero brokerage on delivery orders, Rs 10 for intraday) and digital KYC (know your customer) with paperless account opening. The company had said it is striving to become the most comprehensive online wealth management platform in India driving financial inclusion for the masses.