Stock grant to CEO only if Paytm m-cap hits IPO level

NEW DELHI: Sharma, founder-CEO of One97 Communications that operates under the brand Paytm, also said the company expects to be breakeven in terms of operating EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) in the next six quarters.

In a letter to shareholders of the company, Sharma said the shares are down significantly compared to the IPO price due to volatile market conditions for high growth stocks globally. It came out with the Initial Public Offering (IPO) late last year and the issue price was Rs 2,150 per share. However, the scrip has taken a beating on the bourses in recent times and even touched an all-time low of Rs 520 apiece.

Sharma, in the letter, also said the company was encouraged by the business momentum. “While we will publish our fiscal 2022 financial results in due course, we are encouraged by our business momentum, the scale of monetisation and operating leverage.

“We expect this to continue, and I believe we should be operating EBITDA breakeven in next 6 quarters (i.e. EBITDA before ESOP cost, and by the quarter ending September 2023), well ahead of estimates by most analysts. Importantly, we are going to achieve this without compromising any of our growth plans,” Sharma said.

He said the entire Paytm team is committed to build a successful, profitable company and create long-term shareholder value. “Aligned with this, my stock grants will be vested to me only when our market cap has crossed the IPO level on a sustained basis,” he said. Sharma also spoke of building a strong leadership team at Paytm.

In a regulatory filing, Paytm shared that its loan disbursals grew by more than fourfold to 65 lakh loan disbursals in the March 2022 quarter from 1.38 million loans it recorded in the same period a year ago.

The number of loans disbursed on an annual basis increased by more than five times to 15.2 million in the March 2022 quarter from 2.6 million in the year-ago period.

For the full FY22, Paytm loan disbursal in value terms grew over fivefold to Rs 7,623 cr from Rs 1,409 cr at the end of 2020-21.