January 19, BENGALURU (Reuters) - Due to revenues driven by the holiday season, Indian digital payments company Paytm PAYT.NS reported operating profit for the sixth straight quarter on Friday.
For the quarter that concluded on December 31, operating profit—which the company defines as core earnings before the expense of employee stock options—was 2.19 billion rupees, up from 310 million rupees the previous year.

Due to the fact that last year's Indian holiday season was postponed until late October, consumers spent more money during the quarter. To make their purchases, more and more Indians are using digital payment services like Paytm, Google Pay, and Phone Pe.

One of the first businesses in India to go public, Paytm, reported a 38% increase in consolidated revenue to 28.51 billion rupees, with the payments division accounting for 61% of the total.
The company, which also happens to be a non-bank lender, reported a 36% increase in income for the quarter from its financial services division, which includes loans. It accounts for 21% of total revenue.

Early in December, the company said that it will stop issuing loans under 50,000 rupees due to the central bank's tightening of regulations on consumer spending following a spike in small-ticket loans.

The business's buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans, or postpaid loans disbursed during the quarter, saw a 44% increase in value compared to the previous year. However, these loans declined 17% sequentially as the company reduced the distribution of its postpaid loans, which comprised loans under 50,000 rupees. Of all the loan types offered by Paytm, this one is the largest.
"The company's pace to turn profitable remains the same as expected, even though the postpaid business took a hit sequentially," Dolat Capital financial analyst Rahul Jain stated.

"Overall numbers could have been even better if it was not scaling down small-ticket loans," Jain stated.
Paytm stated that as it tries to expand into high-ticket loans, the average loan ticket size in the personal loan segment climbed to 168,000 rupees from 120,000 rupees a year ago.