India's Paytm says quarterly revenue rises 39% as loan demand soars

BENGALURU, July 22 (Reuters) - Indian digital payments firm Paytm (PAYT.NS) reported a 39% rise in quarterly revenue, helped by soaring demand for loans.

One 97 Communications Ltd (PAYT.NS), parent of India's no. 2 digital payments app by market share, reported late Friday that revenue rose 39% year-on-year to 23.42 billion Indian rupees ($285.68 million) in the three-months ending June 30, from 16.80 billion rupees in the year-earlier period.

It reported an operating profit for a third straight quarter, despite a rise in employee-related expenses and a lack of government incentives.

Operating profit came in at 840 million rupees, compared with an operating loss of 2.75 billion rupees, while the net loss narrowed to 3.57 billion rupees.

That was lower than the previous quarter's 2.34 billion rupees worth operating profit, which included a government incentive to promote payments via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) digital payments system.

Paytm defines operating profit as core profit before cost of employee stock-owning plans. It first reported an operating profit for the final three months of 2022 – nine months ahead of schedule.

Quarterly expenses were up 15.9% at 28 billion rupees, with appraisals during the period driving up employee costs 21%.

Paytm, which also rents out devices that confirm payments to merchants, said revenue at its core payments business rose 31%, while financial services revenue, which includes that of the buy now pay later loans, rose 93%.

The company's fast-growing financial services business formed 22.3% of the total revenue.

Its contribution margin — a measure of revenue less cashbacks and charges such as payment processing — rose to 56%, from 43% a year earlier.