MobiKwik Shares Crash 10% As Lock-In Period Ends

Shares of MobiKwik slumped as much as 9.8% to INR 243 intraday today following the end of the six-month lock-in period for pre-IPO shareholders.

According to Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, 3.8 Cr shares that were under lock-in are now eligible for trading.

The stock recovered slightly later in the day to end today’s trading session at INR 245.70 on the BSE, 8.7% lower than its previous close. Nearly 28 Lakh shares of the company were traded today, and its market capitalisation stood at INR 1,908.75 Cr (about $220.7 Mn) at the end of the session.

With this, the stock has fallen almost 12% compared to its IPO issue price of INR 279.

Notably, shares of MobiKwik declined over 5% in the preceding four trading sessions after the finance ministry dismissed a report which said the government was mulling imposing merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI transactions worth over INR 3,000.

The finance ministry called the report “speculative, baseless and misleading”, adding that the government is committed to promoting digital payments via UPI. 

Notably, the fintech industry has been calling for levying MDR on UPI transactions as it would provide an additional revenue stream. 

Commenting on MDR on UPI in its Q4 earnings call, MobiKwik cofounder and CEO Bipin Preet Singh said, “MDR on UPI and PPI is a development that is already in motion from the RBI and is being discussed across the payments ecosystem. From our perspective, this will definitely introduce a new revenue stream that we are currently not receiving, making it essentially 100% profit for us from any Pocket UPI transactions.” 

Pocket UPI allows users to make UPI payments directly from MobiKwik’s digital wallet. 

On the financial front, MobiKwik’s net loss surged to INR 56.03 Cr in Q4 FY25 from a loss of INR 67.1 Lakh in the same quarter last year. Sequentially, the loss increased 1.3% from INR 53.1 Cr.

Operating revenue grew marginally to INR 267.78 Cr in Q4 FY25 from INR 264.98 Cr in the year-ago period.

The main reason driving the widening of loss was the company’s lending vertical, which, due to its low contribution margin, dragged down the bottom line. Its financial services segment, which covers lending, insurance, bill payment, among others, saw the revenue decline to INR 56 Cr in Q4 FY25 from INR 73 Cr a year ago. 

In order to ramp up its revenue, the company is looking to introduce several new offerings while also diversifying into new segments. It expects its payment revenue to rise further on the back of the launch of Pocket UPI.