Paytm Shares Shoot Up Another 6.5% As January Consumer Engagement Numbers Add To Q3-Print Momentum

Paytm managed to push consumer engagement on its app to its highest-ever point thus far in the month of January while seeing sustained growth in its core payments and loan distribution business.

What Happened? Paytm filed its monthly operating metric update on Wednesday where the fintech stated that it had clocked 89 million average monthly transacting users (MTU) in the month of January 2023, marking a 29% rise from January last year.

The company saw consistent growth in its loan distribution business in January with disbursements through the platform shooting up 327% year-over-year ₹3,928 crore. Total merchant payments volume also saw a 44% year-on-year growth for the fintech to ₹1.2 lakh crore.

The mobile payments giant also managed growth in offline payments, with 6.1 million merchants now subscribed for payment devices – an increase of 3 lakh subscribers in the month of January 2023.

The company’s strong January figures come on the back of Paytm marking its first-ever quarterly operating profit since listing on the stock market – with a 42% increase in revenue from operations in the third quarter that ended December 2022. The firm cut down its consolidated net loss to ₹392 crore from a figure of ₹778.4 crore in the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the company’s CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma remains confident that the operating profit recorded in Q3 2023, is ‘sustainable', adding that EBITDA profitability will be an area of focus for the company in subsequent quarters.

Price Action: Paytm shares saw a 6.35% increase in value at ₹628 as markets opened Wednesday.

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