During the quarter, EBITDA before ESOP was at Rs 219 crore, steeply higher than Rs 31 crore in Q2 FY23. EBITDA before ESOP margin improved to 8%, an expansion of 6 percent points YoY, on back of growth and operating leverage.

Contribution profit increased 45% YoY to Rs 1,520 crore, due to growth in net payment margin and financial services business. Contribution margin increased to 53%, up 2% point YoY.

Contribution profit is a non-GAAP financial measure. We define contribution profit as revenue from operations less payment processing charges, promotional cashback & incentives expenses, connectivity & content fees, contest, ticketing & FASTag expenses & logistics, deployment & collection cost of our businesses.

The firm stated that its payment business continues to scale, led by increase in GMV and higher subscription revenue. In Q3 FY 2024, payments revenue grew by 45% YoY to Rs 1,730 crore.

In this financial year, online sales for the festive season were in Q3, whereas in the previous financial year it was largely in Q2, added the firm.

In Q3 FY 2024, revenue from financial services and others jumped 36% YoY to Rs 607 crore.

“We will continue to calibrate Postpaid further in Q4 FY 2024 and beyond on the back of continued macro uncertainty and regulatory guidance for less than Rs 50k loans,” the company stated in press release.

During Q3 FY24, the number of loans distributed through the firm's platform increased to Rs 1.15 crore, recording a growth of 10% YoY. The value of loans distributed jumped to Rs 155.35 crore, up 56% YoY.

Average monthly transacting users (MTU) for Q3 FY24 grew by 18% YoY to 10 crore as Paytm app remains a preferred choice for customers, with its offering to pay for various use cases through comprehensive payment instruments, such as UPI (including rupay credit card), wallet, cards etc.

Net payment margin jumped 38% YoY to Rs 748 crore due to increase in payment processing margin and increase in merchant subscription revenues.

The gross merchandise value climbed 47% YoY to Rs 5.1 lakh crore in Q3 FY24, aided by timing of festive season. The payment processing margin has improved in range of 7-9 bps, due to increase in GMV of non-UPI instruments like Postpaid, EMI and cards, and improvements in payment processing margin on these non-UPI instruments.

As of 31 December 2023, merchant subscriptions were 1.06 crore, increasing 49 Lakh YoY. In this quarter, the firm deployed 14 Lakh devices.

In Q3 FY 2024, marketing services revenue grew 22% YoY to Rs 514 crore. As on 31 December 2023, the company's net cash and investable balance stood at Rs 8,901 crore.

Meanwhile the company’s board has approved joint development agreement with ACE Builders and Promoters, whereby ACE will raise requisite capital/ funds for the development of an IT/ITES complex on a 10-acre (40,000 square metres) IT/ITES plot located in Sector 159, Noida which was allotted to the Company in March 2018 (pre-IPO) by the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida).

It is expected that a total FSI area of approximately 1.4 million sq. ft. will be developed, of which the company will retain 0.5 million sq. ft. and the balance area measuring 0.9 million sq. ft. will be the developer’s share. The total development cost estimated to be incurred by ACE is Rs 750 crore.

Further, the company will be investing Rs 100 crore in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) to build a global financial ecosystem. It will make this investment over a period of time.

The company will incorporate one or more subsidiaries in GIFT-city IFSC, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It will incorporate first wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) within 3 to 6 months and other WOS within 12 months.

One 97 Communications is the digital financial services firm which operates under the Paytm brand. Paytm is India's payment super app offering consumers and merchants comprehensive payment services.

Shares of One 97 Communications were higher 1.56% to Rs 786 on the BSE.