The shares of online payment platform Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications Limited fell 27.25% on Thursday after getting listed in the stock markets. At market closing, the shares were priced at Rs 1,564 apiece, down from their issue price of Rs 2,150.
As the markets opened on Thursday, the stock was listed for Rs 1,955 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, registering a 9% drop from its original issue price.
On November 8, the fintech company had opened its Rs 18,300-crore initial public offering, or IPO, for subscription. It was India’s largest IPO till date.
Market experts have been apprehensive about Paytm’s performance on the capital market, with many pointing out that it was a loss-making company. Paytm had incurred losses of Rs 1,701 crore in the previous financial year. The company had covered up the losses by cutting marketing and advertising expenses.
Brokerage firm Macquarie, in its research report, said that Paytm’s business model was a “cash guzzler” and it did not have focus or direction, Moneycontrol reported. The report also stated that it will be challenging for Paytm to be profitable because of market regulations and competition.
“It [Paytm] is still a loss-making company and very aggressively priced,” said Santosh Meena, head of research at online trading platform Swastika Investmart. “Therefore, we saw a tepid response in terms of subscriptions.”
Paytm Chief Executive Officer Vijay Sharma said that the fintech firm will have to work on explaining the business model to prospective investors, NDTV reported.
“One day’s loss does not represent the whole picture,” he said. “We are growing [in terms of] revenue, we are growing [in terms of] margin. We are expanding and we will continue to expand.”
The broader equity markets also closed with losses on Thursday. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 372.32 points to close at 59,636.01, while the 50-share NSE Nifty finished at 17,764.80 after losing 133.85 points.
Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Tata Steel and Maruti Suzuki India stocks lost the most in Thursday’s trading. State Bank of India’s stocks gained more than 1% on both the benchmark indices. Power Grid Corporation of India, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank stocks also registered growth.
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