PAYTM’S LOAN DISBURSAL JUMPS 365% TO ₹2,180 CR IN THIRD QUARTER

NEW DELHI: Paytm operator One97 Communications Ltd on Monday said it recorded “stellar growth” in the December quarter, thanks to a rapid scaling of its lending business.

Loan disbursal volumes during the quarter shot up 401% year-on-year to 4.4 million, and value jumped 365% to ₹2,180 crore, One97 Communications in a stock market disclosure. The announcement came on a day broking firm Macquarie slashed Paytm’s target price by 25% to ₹900 per share from ₹1,200. HDFC Mutual Fund, one of the four mutual funds that were anchor investors in its initial public offering (IPO), has reduced its holding in Paytm, following its disappointing market debut in November.

Shares of Paytm on Monday closed at ₹1157.9 on the BSE, down 6.01% from their previous close. Paytm shares had an issue price of ₹2150, and had listed at a 9% discount.

Paytm also said its gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 123% year-on-year to ₹2,50,100 crore during the December quarter. The fintech firm added that its monthly transacting users (MTU) showed consistent growth in this fiscal, with 64.4 million average MTUS during the period under review, a growth of 37% year-on-year.

Paytm was India’s largest public issue, raising ₹18,300 crore that comprised a fresh issue of ₹8,300 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of ₹10,000 crore by several selling shareholders, including founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and investors.

The 11-year-old Noida-based firm has expanded beyond digital payments into newer categories of lending, gaming, wealth management, financial services and digital commerce. For the year ended March 2021, Paytm’s consolidated revenue shrunk 11% to ₹3,187 crore, but it managed to cut losses by 42% to ₹1,701 crore.

Paytm recently also launched ‘Tap to Pay’ which enables users to make payments through their Paytm card by just tapping the phone on a POS machine.