Paytm, often referred to as the "Indian Alipay," announced a net profit of 9.3 billion rupees (approximately $111 million) for the quarter ending September. This marks its first quarterly profit, primarily driven by a one-time gain of 13.5 billion rupees from the sale of its events business.
Despite this positive outcome, the company's revenue fell by 34% to 16.6 billion rupees in the same period. Initially, Paytm's stock price dropped by as much as 5.8%, but it recovered most of the losses during early trading.
The company is aggressively working to turn its fortunes around following regulatory crackdowns that led to a significant stock price decline and cast doubts on its long-term prospects. As Paytm faces fierce competition from companies like Google in the digital payments space, it is focusing on retaining users and expanding its services, particularly in the lending sector.
Earlier this year, Indian regulators nearly shut down all of Paytm's banking operations due to unregulated data flows between the company and larger fintech firms. This severely impacted its payment processing and overall business, prompting its founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, to forge deeper collaborations with other Indian banks.
Paytm is currently awaiting approvals from the Reserve Bank of India and a payment institution to stabilize its core operations. Its stock has rebounded significantly after plummeting over 50% in February due to regulatory restrictions.
