Take a look at some important numbers reported by these new-age companies.
Zomato, which had a blockbuster IPO in 2021, reported a widening of consolidated net loss at Rs 346.6 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2022.
Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,948.2 crore as against Rs 1,112 crore in the year-ago period.
According to Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal, there was an “industry-wide slowdown in the food delivery business since late October (post Diwali). This trend is across the country, but more so in the top eight cities.”
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He quickly added the company is seeing “green shoots of demand which make us believe that the worst may be behind us”.Douglas Feagin, the nominee of China’s Ant Group on the board of Zomato, resigned from his position of non-executive, non-independent director, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
The announcement comes a week after Feagin resigned from the board of One 97 Communications, the parent entity of Noida-based fintech company Paytm.
The food delivery platform also said in its earnings report that it pulled out of around 225 smaller cities last month.
“Performance of these (225) cities was not very encouraging in the past few quarters and we did not feel the payback period on our investments in these cities was acceptable,” CFO Akshant Goyal said.
Analysts, however, retained their bullish calls on Zomato but slashed the price targets on the stock.
After three days of gains, Zomato’s shares closed down 1.65% on the NSE on Friday at Rs 53.50 per share.
Delhivery
Delhivery’s revenue fell 8% year on year to Rs 1,823 crore for the quarter ended December. Losses widened to Rs 195 crore from Rs 126 crore in the corresponding period last year.
The company in October 2022 had warned that high inflation would dent consumer spending and result in moderate growth in shipments for the rest of the financial year.
Chief executive of Delhivery Sahil Barua expects shipment volumes for online ecommerce platforms to grow by 15-20% in 2023 despite a funding slowdown for such marketplaces.
“We continue to see new buyers coming into the market, and that’s not just in ecommerce alone. You see this across all consumer internet businesses,” Barua said.
Asked about the impact of Shopee’s India exit, Barua said: “Shopee has ceased to exist in the Indian market, and so they will have zero impact on our final quarter (numbers) because they’re not there. I think, when you adjust for Shopee volumes from last year’s Q4 versus this year’s Q4, you will see growth in our volumes year on year.”
One97 Communications
One97 Communications (OCL), the parent entity of mobile payments and financial services company Paytm, reported better-than-expected numbers as its consolidated net loss narrowed to Rs 392 crore in the third quarter.
The company had posted a net loss of Rs 778.4 crore in the same period a year ago.
Revenue from operations jumped about 42 per cent to Rs 2,062.2 crore during the quarter from Rs 1,456.1 crore in the year-ago period.
Brokerage firm Macquarie Research raised its 12-month target price for Paytm stock to Rs 800 in a report released, after slashing the target price of the scrip twice last year, from Rs 1,200 to Rs 800, and then to Rs 450.
Also read | ETtech Explainer: Macquarie’s rationale for raising Paytm target price decoded
Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant Alibaba on Friday exited One97 Communications by selling its remaining 3.3% stake through block deals. Alibaba.Com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd sold 2.14 crore shares for Rs 1,377.51 crore, NSE data showed. Subsequently, the shares of Paytm tumbled over 8% to Rs 653.5 in Friday’s trade on BSE.
Meanwhile, index provider MSCI added 24 companies, including Delhivery, to its India Domestic Small Cap Index as part of its February review.
PB Fintech
PB Fintech, which operates insurance aggregator Policybazaar and credit marketplace Paisabazaar, reported a 69% spike in consolidated income to Rs 678.9 crore (year-on-year) in the third quarter. Sequentially, the increase is 7%.
It narrowed losses to Rs 87.6 crore in the quarter ended last December. Sequentially, the losses have more than halved.
As part of regulatory filings to the BSE, PB Fintech said that it is looking to deliver a full year positive PAT (profit-after tax) in the next fiscal year.
“We stay confident of being Adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) positive by Q4 this year and delivering the first full year of positive PAT in 2023-24,” the company said.
