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Paytm said on Friday (August 12) that it disbursed 2.9 Mn loans in the month of July, up 296% year-on-year (YoY), which aggregates to a total loan value of INR 2,090 Cr ($264 Mn) during the month.

The digital payments platform reported loan disbursements at an annualised run rate (ARR) of over INR 25,000 Cr ($3 Bn) through its platform in July. The loan disbursement ARR stood at over 24,000 Cr in June.

Paytm believes that there is ample growth and upsell opportunity in its loan business. “We are being conservative on the quality of the book (especially given the possibility of macro headwinds),” the startup said in its BSE filing.

Meanwhile, Paytm’s monthly transacting users (MTUs) for the month of July 2022 stood at 77.6 Mn, registering a growth of 41% YoY as the Paytm super app continues to witness heightened consumer engagement for its payment offerings.

It is noteworthy that Paytm’s MTU in July was slightly higher than its average MTU of 74.8 Mn in the June quarter of FY23.

Paytm reported an 89% YoY jump in its operating revenue to INR 1,680 Cr in the quarter, also demonstrating that the business is bringing down its losses sequentially. In fact, a few major drivers of Paytm’s growth in Q1 were an increase in bill payments due to growing MTUs, growth in loan disbursements, and a growth in subscription revenues with a growing number of payment devices.

In the month ending July, Paytm’s total deployment of devices at merchant stores across the country stood at 4.1 Mn, which was 3.8 Mn at the end of the quarter ending June 2022. This is also an addition of over 3 Mn new devices since July 2021.

“The strong adoption of devices in turn, drives higher payment volumes, subscription revenues as well as merchant loan distribution,” the startup noted.

In fact, its total merchant payments volume also continues to rise. Paytm’s gross merchandise value (GMV) for the month of July 2022 aggregated to approximately INR 1.06 Lakh Cr ($13 Bn), a growth of 82% YoY from INR 0.58 Lakh Cr seen in the corresponding period last year.

In Q1 FY23, the startup registered a GMV growth of 101% YoY to INR 3 Lakh Cr.

Paytm Shares Slump

Despite reporting a continuous growth in its overall operating performance, Paytm shares fell about 5% to INR 786.55 on BSE by 2.50 PM IST, after advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS) asked the company shareholders to vote against the proposal of reappointing Vijay Shekhar Sharma as the company CEO.

Ahead of its annual general meeting on August 19, the advisory firm has flagged concern over Paytm boss Sharma’s past several commitments about making the business profitable, which have not played out. “We believe the board must consider professionalising the management,” IiAS said.

Paytm shares had jumped over 6% at the beginning of the week, after its Q1 FY23 results. 

In the early trading hours on Friday, the shares fell as much as 6.1% to INR 775.