"My Stock Grants Will Be Vested To Me When...": Here's What Paytm Founder Said

Paytm's Founder and Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Wednesday said that his stock grants (employee stock options) will be vested to him only when the market capitalisation of the company crosses the initial public offering (IPO) level on a sustained basis.

The digital payments firm had granted ESOPs to Mr Sharma for the first time since the founding of the company in September 2021.

He also stated that Paytm shares declined significantly in recent times due to volatile market conditions for high growth stocks. Paytm had offered shares to the public at Rs 2,150 apiece. The stock has been on a downward trend since its listing in November last year and has fallen more than 70 per cent.

Mr Sharma, in a letter addressed to Paytm shareholders, also said the company has been encouraged by the business momentum.

"I believe we should be operating EBITDA breakeven in next 6 quarters (i.e. EBITDA before ESOP cost, and by the quarter ending September 2023), well ahead of estimates by most analysts. Importantly, we are going to achieve this without compromising any of our growth plans," Mr Sharma added.

In a regulatory filing, Paytm shared that its loan disbursals grew by more than fourfold to 65 lakh loan disbursals in the March 2022 quarter from 13.8 lakh loans recorded in the same period a year ago.

The number of loans disbursed on an annual basis increased by more than five times to 1.52 crore in the March 2022 quarter from 26.35 lakh in the year-ago period.

In value terms, the loan disbursal on the company's platform grew by over fivefold to Rs 3,553 crore in March 2022 quarter from Rs 687 crore a year ago.

For the full FY22 (2021-22), Paytm loan disbursal in value terms grew over fivefold to Rs 7,623 crore from Rs 1,409 crore at the end of 2020-21.

Paytm's gross merchandise value (GMV) grew to Rs 2.59 lakh crore in March 2022 quarter, from Rs 1.27 lakh crore a year ago.

On an annual basis, the GMV of Paytm more than doubled to Rs 8.52 lakh crore in 2021-22 from Rs 4.03 lakh crore in 2020-21.

Shares of Paytm rose 5.08 per cent to Rs 640 apiece today.