Can Vijay Shekhar Sharma fix Paytm's woes as he takes over the reins?
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The shares of Paytm have crashed about 50 per cent this year, amid high-profile exits, the RBI ban on certain businesses of Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL), and fresh reports about some lending partners revoking loan guarantees due to repayment defaults from customers.
The Paytm stock closed at Rs 317.15 on Wednesday, a decline of another 5 per cent and breaking its all-time low of Rs 318 on February 16 this year.
As the share price continues to hit the lower circuit amid fresh uncertainties, the market capitalisation of One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, has declined to about $2.5 billion.
The digital payment services major was once valued at nearly $20 billion, at the time of its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021. The stock has been tumbling since then, especially since January this year, when the Central Bank acted against certain businesses of the Paytm Payments Bank.
Meanwhile, top-level exits continue at Paytm.
Ajay Vikram Singh, chief business officer (CBO) of the UPI and user growth vertical, Bipin Kaul, CBO of offline payments, and Sandeepan Kashyap, CBO of the consumer payments vertical, have stepped down amid "ongoing restructuring".
These senior executives moved on after the sudden resignation of Bhavesh Gupta, President and COO at Paytm, who has taken a career break due to "personal reasons", and will be transitioning to an advisory role.
Other senior exits at the company in recent months include Paytm Payments Bank MD and CEO, Surinder Chawla, One 97 Communications’ chief marketing officer, Sumit Mathur, and Praveen Sharma, senior vice president of business, according to reports.
Amid the upheaval, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma is now taking charge in a big way, to work directly with the new senior leadership.
"We are committed to ensuring sustained growth across key business verticals as we are going through a restructuring initiative that signals a reinvigorated approach under Paytm’s CEO. These changes are part of our approach to strengthen Paytm’s next line of leaders," the company said in a statement.
The company plans to expand its leadership team to build a large and profitable payment and financial services distribution business. "These robust leaders will work directly with the CEO and other senior management leaders fostering innovation and strengthening the group structure for sustainability and regulatory compliance," according to the company.
