Vijay Shekhar Sharma Buys 1.72 Lakh Paytm Shares Worth INR 11 Cr

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma purchased 1.72 lakh shares of One 97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of the fintech unicorn, worth INR 11 Cr on May 30-31, regulatory filings showed.

On May 30, Sharma bought 1,00,552 shares of the company for INR 6.31 Cr. The next day, the Paytm CEO bought another 71,469 shares for INR 4.68 Cr.

Post the two transactions, Sharma holds 5.76 Cr shares of the fintech unicorn.

Shares of Paytm ended 5.27% higher at INR 646.30 apiece on Friday (June 17) on the NSE.

It is prudent to note here Sharma, as per the regulations, was not allowed to buy shares for at least six months after Paytm’s IPO in November 2021 since he was a selling shareholder at the IPO. 

A number of other senior executives of the startup also bought the company’s shares in May. Atul Shridhar, who is VP Engineering at Paytm, bought 24,020 shares for INR 1.33 Cr. 

Nilesh Kumar Singh, VP Human Resources at Paytm, purchased 11,602 shares for INR 64.25 Lakh. Further, Praveen Kumar Sharma, MD & CEO of Paytm Payments Bank, bought 9,787 shares for INR 54.20 Lakh.

In an earnings call with the investors on May 21, Sharma said he believed that Paytm will be profitable by September next year. “Like I publicly disclosed in a letter, we remain committed and I’m even more convinced that we will be delivering operating profitability – that is EBITDA before ESOP costs – by the September quarter next year,” he said.

However, Sharma said that the date was not absolute as it is based on Paytm’s operating revenues. Therefore, the date is subject to change because of any extraordinary gains or losses made during the period.

“Our September quarter breakeven is explicitly and completely based on operating revenues. Any extraordinary charges like ESOPs or any extraordinary gains, if there are any, are not part of the plan, or even calculated or factored in,” he said.

Paytm’s net losses in the quarter ended March 2022 widened to INR 762.5 Cr from INR 444.4 Cr in Q4 of FY21. At the same time, it reported a 41% year-on-year (YoY) increase in its net loss to INR 2,396.4 Cr for FY22. Further, the listed startup’s revenue from operations grew 77% to INR 4,974.2 Cr in FY22.

In a recent regulatory filing, the fintech unicorn reported disbursing 5.5 Mn loans in the two months ending May 2022. The total value of these loans was INR 3,576 Cr. 

Paytm also reported processing merchant payments worth a gross merchandise value (GMV) of INR 1.96 Lakh Cr during the same time. It added that its average monthly transacting users (MTU) reached 74 Mn during the two months ending May 2022.

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