Paytm Shares Down Nearly 5% After COO Bhavesh Gupta’s Resignation

Shares of Paytm’s parent entity One97 Communication dropped nearly 5% in the first hours of trading on Monday (May 6) to INR 351.70.

At 12:24 PM, Paytm shares were trading at INR 352.20 on the BSE, marking a 4.8% decrease from the previous close of INR 370.20.

This comes after Paytm’s president and chief operating officer (COO) Bhavesh Gupta stepped down from the company last week.

Gupta cited personal reasons for tendering his resignation while Paytm attributed the move to a company-wide organisational restructuring. 

Gupta’s resignation was accepted by the fintech’s board during a meeting on Saturday (May 4) and will be effective from May 31. He will transition to an advisory role within the company and will “guide” Paytm’s growth initiatives until the end of the year, the company said. 

The company has recently executed a significant restructuring at the top levels of its payments and financial services sectors. Varun Sridhar has assumed the role of CEO at Paytm Services Private Limited, while Rakesh Singh, formerly of Fisdom, has been appointed as the CEO of the wealthtech product Paytm Money.

The departures coincide with the challenges for Paytm following the restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on its payments bank. In January, the central bank prohibited the Paytm Payments Bank from enrolling new users and from providing several services, such as UPI payments and deposits.

Consequently, the company’s stock has experienced a significant decline, plummeting by nearly half since earlier this year, marking a year-to-date (YTD) decline of over 41%.

Before the uncertainty started, Paytm’s stock was seen to be entering into a rally phase. The company’s net loss narrowed over 43% to INR 222 Cr in the December quarter (Q3 FY24) from INR 392 Cr reported in the year-ago period. Moreover, Paytm’s operating revenue surged 38% to INR 2,850 Cr in Q4 FY24 from INR 2,062 in Q3 FY23.