One97 Communications, the parent firm of Paytm, on May 20 reported a loss of Rs 762.5 crore for the March quarter of the financial year 2021-22 (Q4FY22). The company had posted a loss of Rs 444.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
The company's revenues from operations were up by 89 percent year-on-year, coming in at Rs 1,541 crore. EBITDA loss before costs of employee stock options stood at Rs 368 crore, lower by Rs 52 crore from Q3FY21.
For the full year FY22, the company posted a loss of Rs 2,396 crore against a loss of Rs 1,701 crore in the previous fiscal. Revenues from operations for FY22 stood at Rs 4,974 crore, up 77% from FY21.
The company said it was on track to break even at the EBITDA level by September 2023.
“This will be driven by continued revenue growth, along with moderation in costs as operating leverage kicks in,” the company said in an exchange filing.
The company’s EBITDA loss for the full year FY22 before ESOP costs stood at Rs 1,518 crore, down by 8 percent as compared to Rs 1,655 crore in FY21.
For margins, the company said, “Q4 FY22 witnessed strong improvement in contribution margins to 35 percent, up from 31 percent in Q3 FY22 and 21 percent in Q4 FY 2021. This was driven by significant improvement in payments contribution margins, growth of high-margin financial services, and increased margin in merchant services (Commerce & Cloud) vertical.”
The company’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) stood at Rs 2.6 lakh crore for the quarter, a growth of 104 percent YoY. For the full year FY22, it doubled to Rs 8.5 lakh crore, from Rs 4 lakh crore in FY21.
GMV is the rupee value of total payments made to merchants through transactions on Paytm’s app, through Paytm Payment Instruments, or through our payment solutions, over a period. It excludes any consumer-to-consumer payment service such as money transfers.
The company said that the Average Monthly Transacting Users on its platform stood at 70.9 million for the quarter, up by 41 percent as compared to Q4 FY21. The company disbursed 6.5 million loans in the quarter amounting to Rs 3,553 crore.
Paytm said the number of loans disbursed in the quarter grew by 374 percent YoY, and the number of loans disbursed was up by over 400 percent.
Paytm Postpaid loans, i.e. the company’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), vertical constituted the highest amount of loans disbursed in the quarter, at Rs 2,183 crore. Merchant loans worth Rs 565 crore and personal loans worth Rs 805 crore were disbursed.
In the fourth quarter of FY22, Paytm Payments Bank was directed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to stop onboarding new customers.
The bank was also directed to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive System Audit of its IT system, the RBI said in a release.
"Onboarding of new customers by Paytm Payments Bank Ltd will be subject to specific permission to be granted by RBI after reviewing the report of the IT auditors. This action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the bank," the RBI had said.
On May 15, the company announced that its deal to acquire Raheja QBE General Insurance has been terminated after both parties were not able to execute the sale and purchase of shares within the deadline.
The company said that it intends to seek requisite approvals for a new general insurance license, wherein they hold a 74 percent majority shareholding upfront.
Since the beginning of 2022, Paytm's stock has fallen by over 57 percent. The stock ended the day up by 3.30 percent in trade on May 20.
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