One 97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of Paytm, on Tuesday released its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report wherein it reported loss marginally narrowed to Rs 539.80 crore in comparison to a loss of Rs 549.60 crore recorded during the corresponding quarter of FY24. However, on a sequential basis, the loss widened from Rs 208.3 crore recorded during the December quarter due to a one-time employee stock option cost, which led to a wider loss compared to the previous quarter.
The fintech major achieved EBITDA before ESOP profitability of Rs 81 crore. Profit after tax also recorded improvement with losses narrowing to Rs 23 crore, excluding a one-time ESOP charge of Rs 522 crore.
This quarter, Paytm announced, there were certain exceptional costs amounting to Rs 522 crore including: a) a one-time, non-cash, acceleration of ESOP expense of Rs 492 crore in Q4FY25, which will result in an equivalent lowering of ESOP expenses in future quarters. Accordingly, it added, starting from Q1FY26, ESOP cost will be substantially lower with Q1FY26 ESOP cost estimated to be in the range of Rs 75-100 crore as against Rs 169 crore in Q4FY25; b) Impairment with regards to investment in certain associate/subsidiary amounting to Rs 30 crore.
In line with the trends seen in previous 3 quarters, Paytm said, Q4FY25 ESOP cost was lower at Rs 169 crore, on account of ESOP lapses at the time of employee separation during the quarter.
On April 16, 2025, Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had informed the company that he has voluntarily forgone all 2.1 crore ESOPs granted to him. The NRC has treated these ESOPs as cancelled and the same have been returned back to the ESOP pool. This, the company said, will result in a one-time, non-cash, acceleration of ESOP expense of Rs 492 crore in Q4FY25, and an equivalent lowering of ESOP expenses in future years.
“Consequent to the above and as per IND AS 102, entire cost of the underlying ESOP grant amounting to Rs 4,092 Cr (recorded in the Statement of Profit and Loss from FY 2022 to FY 2025), has been credited back to Retained Earnings of the Company and therefore, has increased the free reserves of the Company,” it said in a regulatory filing.
Update on capex
Capex for FY25 was Rs 317 crore versus Rs 813 crore for FY24. Lower capex, Paytm said, is largely on account of reduction in cost of devices, focus on refurbishment of devices (cost of refurbishment of devices is included in other indirect costs) and lower device deployments in first half of FY25. Going forward, Paytm said, capex is expected to increase in line with increased pace of device deployment, however capex will be much lower than FY 2024 levels (pre disruption) even though the company is deploying more devices than previously. “This has resulted in depreciation & amortization (D&A) expenses for Q4FY25 to come down further to Rs 150 crore, a reduction of 9 per cent QoQ and 23 per cent YoY. We expect D&A expenses to be in the range of Rs 500- Rs 600 crore in FY26,” it said.
Update on cash balance
Paytm’s cash balance stood at Rs 12,809 crore as of quarter ending March 2025, as compared to Rs 12,850 crore as of quarter ending December 2024. The above excludes Paytm Money Ltd (PML) customer funds and Merchant Funds in Escrow/Nodal of Rs 326 crore and Rs 2,467 crore, for March 2025 quarter, and Rs 287 crore and Rs 2,454 crore, for December 2024 quarter, respectively. “Our cash balance has increased by Rs 4,498 crore during FY25, primarily on account of monetization of two non-core assets (entertainment ticketing business, and our stock acquisition rights in PayPay) for Rs 4,386 crore,” the payments major said in an exchange filing.
Revenue growth
Paytm recorded Q4 revenue from operations at Rs 1911.50 crore, posting a decline of 15.69 per cent as against Rs 2267.10 crore reported during the fourth quarter of previous financial year. Sequentially, revenue grew marginally by 5 per cent from Rs 1,828 crore.