new delhi: Fintech firm One97 Communications, owner of the Paytm brand, has reported narrowing of consolidated loss to Rs 545 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2025, following a reduction in payment processing charges
and employee benefits.
The company incurred a notional loss of Rs 522 crore during the reported quarter stemming out of the acceleration of ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) expense of Rs 492 crore and Rs 30 crore towards their impairments following Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma voluntarily surrendering 2.1 crore shares granted to him in the form of ESOP.
After excluding the exceptional loss of Rs 522 crore, the company posted a loss of Rs 23 crore for the March quarter.
“Paytm’s PAT (profit after tax) has improved by Rs 185 crore quarter-over-quarter to negative of Rs 23 crore in the fourth quarter of financial year 2025, excluding a one-time exceptional ESOP charge of Rs 522 crore,” the company said in a statement.
The company achieved operational profit of Rs 81 crore after excluding ESOP costs in the March 2025 quarter as per the guidance, Paytm said.
The employee cost of Paytm dropped by about one-third to Rs 748.3 crore during the March 2025 quarter from Rs 1,104.4 crore in the year-ago period. Paytm said that it “leveraged AI to reduce non-sales employee cost”.
The company had incurred a loss of around Rs 551 crore in the same period a year ago, it said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue from operations dropped 15.7 per cent to Rs 1,911.5 crore during the quarter from Rs 2,267.1 crore in the March 2024 quarter.
“In the fourth quarter of FY 2025, we achieved operating revenue of Rs 1,911 crore, with an increase in revenues from distribution of financial services and Rs 70 crore of UPI incentive for FY 2025,” the statement said.
In FY25, the company’s loss more than halved to Rs 645.2 crore from Rs 1,390.4 crore in FY24. Revenue from operations declined by about 31 per cent to Rs 6,900 crore from Rs 9,977.8 crore.
Financial services remained a key growth driver of the company with revenue rising by 9 per cent sequentially to Rs 545 crore on account of a higher share of merchant loans, higher trail revenue from the default loss guarantee (DLG) portfolio, and better collection efficiencies.
The gross merchandise value, which is total sales from the Paytm platform, grew by about 19 per cent to Rs 5.1 lakh crore during the March 2025 quarter from Rs 4.3 lakh crore on a YoY basis.