(Reuters) – India's Paytm on Tuesday reported a narrowing sequential quarterly loss excluding special items as its digital payments business recovers from the central bank-mandated banking sector contraction earlier this year.
The company posted a loss of 4.07 billion rupees ($48.41 million) before special items and tax, lower than the previous quarter's loss of 8.39 billion rupees, a record high, but down from 2.73 billion rupees a year earlier. It was more than a million rupees.
On a net basis, Paytm reported its first profit since going public, with consolidated net profit for the second quarter ended September 30 at 9.28 billion rupees ($110.38 million) on the back of a one-time profit of 13.45 billion rupees. ). .
The company sold its event ticket sales business to food delivery company Zomato in a deal worth 20.5 billion rupees in August to focus on its dwindling payments and financial services business.
The company's operating revenue for the July-September period fell 34% to 16.6 billion rupees, a slight recovery from the 36% decline in the previous quarter, which absorbed the full impact of business downsizing.
The Reserve Bank of India, which is also the country's financial regulator, shut down Paytm Payments Bank in January citing persistent compliance issues, raising concerns about Paytm's digital transactions and loan business and causing its stock price to plummet.
However, Paytm said in May that it expected revenue and profitability to improve “significantly” from the second quarter.
(1 dollar = 84.0720 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Dimpal Gurwani in Bengaluru; Editing by Janan Venkatraman)
