One 97 Communications Ltd., the parent company of Indian digital payments firm Paytm, reported a profit after tax of Rs 930 crore ($110 million) for the September quarter (Q2 FY2025), buoyed by gains from the sale of its ticketing business to food delivery giant Zomato. In the year-ago quarter, Paytm had posted a Rs 290 crore loss.
The company’s revenue from operations dropped 34% year-on-year to Rs 1,659 crore ($197 million) in Q2 FY2025 from Rs 2,518 crore in the year-ago period. However, the revenue was 10.5% higher than the Rs 1,501 crore posted in the previous quarter.
Excluding the one-time gain from the sale of the ticketing business, the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company would have reported a net loss of Rs 415 crore—in fact, its losses would have been 43% higher than in Q2 FY2024.
Zomato acquired the movie and events ticketing business of Paytm in August in a deal worth $244.2 million. Zomato sees the acquisition boosting revenue at its non-core businesses by more than three-fold in the next two years, it had told shareholders at the time.
Paytm’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) grew 5% on a sequential basis to Rs 4.5 lakh crore in Q2 FY 2025. “We expect this trend in GMV growth to continue, and accelerate in Q3 due to the festive season,” said the company in a filing to the stock exchange.
For the quarter under review, Paytm reported a negative EBITDA of Rs 404 crore, which is an improvement from Rs 388 crore in the previous quarter. The company attributed the improvement to “growth in revenue, cost optimisation (direct as well as indirect cost) and reduction in ESOP costs on account of ESOP lapses at the time of employee separation during the quarter”.
For the six-month period ended September 30 (H1 FY2025), Paytm posted a profit after tax of Rs 90 crore ($10.7 million), compared with a loss of Rs 650 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations fell 35% to Rs 3,161 crore in the period.
Of late, Paytm has been making headlines for more reasons than one. Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India, which also acts as the country’s financial regulator, barred Paytm Payments Bank from accepting deposits in its accounts and digital wallets on the back of compliance issues. The order came as a massive blow to the startup unicorn, sparking worries about its digital transaction and loans business.
The digital payments firm’s consolidated net loss had widened to Rs 839 crore ($100.3 million) for the quarter ended June 30, its biggest since it went public in November 2021, following the RBI diktat.
Shares of One97 Communications fell over 4% from their previous close in late afternoon trade on Tuesday at Rs 690 apiece. A fall in the company’s revenue spooked retail investors.
The shares have lost more than half their value since Paytm’s public listing in November 2021, but they are up more than 7% so far in 2024.
