One97 Communications Ltd (OCL), the company that operates the Paytm brand, posted a consolidated loss of Rs 539.8 crore in the fourth quarter of 2024-25 (Q4FY25), slightly lower from the Rs 549.6 crore it reported in Q4FY24.
Photograph: ANI Photo
Sequentially, the fintech company’s loss widened from Rs 208.3 crore in Q3FY25 on account of a one-time exceptional expense amounting to Rs 522 crore during the quarter ended March 2025.
This was largely driven by Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma forgoing employee stock ownership plan (Esops), leading to an expense of Rs 492.4 crore.
OCL’s net loss would have stood at Rs 23 crore in the absence of the exceptional item on its balance sheet.
The Noida-based company’s losses for full FY25 were significantly lower at Rs 658.7 crore, down from Rs 1,417 crore in FY24.
“We will definitely aim for 200 to 250 million customers on our platform.
“I’m not talking about… GMV (gross merchandise value) or transaction market share but about highly repeated usage by 250 million users because it is a material number of users (that will) matter on our platform,” Sharma said in a call with analysts.
Sharma’s comments came as Paytm saw a sharp 25 per cent year-on-year reduction in monthly transacting users (MTUs) on its app during the quarter ended March. MTUs were down to 72 million in Q4FY25 from 96 million in Q4FY24.
Meanwhile, OCL’s revenue from operations declined 15.7 per cent to Rs 1,911.5 crore in Q4FY25 from Rs 2,267.1 crore in Q4FY24.
Sequentially, revenue from operations grew marginally by 4.6 per cent from Rs 1,827.8 crore in Q3FY25.
Its revenue from operations for FY25 stood at Rs 6,900.4 crore, a 30.8 per cent decrease from Rs 9,977.8 crore in FY24.
The fintech major has trimmed its expenses to Rs 2,154.9 crore in Q4FY25, a 19.9 per cent reduction from Rs 2,691.4 crore in Q4FY24.
On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, expenses saw a minor decline of 2.9 per cent from Rs 2,219.8 crore in Q3FY25.
It reduced expenses by 21.9 per cent in FY25 — to Rs 9,095.9 crore from Rs 11,644.6 crore in FY24.
Paytm received Rs 70 crore in FY25 as incentives for India’s real-time payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI), significantly lower than the Rs 288 crore in FY24.
The reduction in incentives follows a cut in the Centre’s budget allocation for promoting the real-time payments system this year.
Asked about the return of the Paytm wallet, which is under restrictions following a diktat from the regulator, Sharma said the company might be close to a ‘breakthrough’.
“I really wish we would have had it by now… but we may be near a breakthrough or some solution…,” he added.
The number of merchant subscriptions, which includes the number of payment acceptance devices, grew to 12.4 million in Q4FY25, up 15.9 per cent from 10.7 million in Q4FY24.
Registered merchants stood at 44 million at the end of Q4FY25.
Revenue from financial services stood at Rs 545 crore in Q4FY25, a 79 per cent increase from Rs 304 crore in Q4FY24.
Its revenue from payments services declined 33 per cent to Rs 1,046 crore from Rs 1,554 crore.
It distributed personal and merchant loans worth Rs 5,738 crore in Q4FY25, up 13 per cent from Rs 5,079 crore in the same quarter the previous year.
The company’s cash balance stood at Rs 12,809 crore at the end of FY25, compared with Rs 8,650 crore at the end of FY24.
The cash balance growth on account of the sale of its entertainment ticketing business to Zomato and monetisation of its stock acquisition rights in Japan-based PayPay.
