Paytm-owned Nearbuy's operational revenue dips, losses cut by 35% in FY18

Ankur Warikoo led Nearbuy was acquired by Paytm in December 2017. The company has finally revealed the financial story before and after the deal via RoC filings with Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

FY18 had been another low year for the company in terms of revenue. While the overall income of the increased by a mere 4.9 per cent from Rs 31.73 crore in FY17 to Rs 33.28 crore, the basic turnover of the company saw a 16.4 per cent decrease from Rs 28.22 crore to Rs 23.58 crore.

This basically means that the negligible increase in the revenue was not on the basis of the core operations of the company. Instead, it relied on a 2.76X jump in the other income that went from Rs 3.52 crore to Rs 9.7 crore.

Its core commission income took an 8.9 per cent dip, and amount earned from expired irredeemable coupons decreased by 48.4 per cent.

On the other hand, Nearbuy managed to cut down in its expenses by 23.9 per cent to Rs 82.16 crore from Rs 108 crore in FY17. This was done on the back of a reduction in all categories of expenses, especially employee benefit.

The salary, employee provision, stock options individually as well as altogether under employee benefits expense was cut down by 39.8 per cent. Notably, the company forfeited over 2 lakh managerial stock options out of the issued 3 lakhs during the year.

With a reduction in costs like rent, repair & maintenance, advertisement promotion, fuel, power, and miscellaneous expenses, other expenses were also controlled by 15.9 per cent.

A loss in sale of fixed assets was something the didn’t allow the company to control the expenses further. During the fiscal, the company sold fixed assets worth Rs 11.01 crore and brought the worth of owned fix assets to Rs 2.38 crore.

It even sold its current investments and brought down the amount invested in mutual funds from Rs 23.45 crore to Rs 7 crore.

The total losses incurred by the company in the latest reported fiscal amounted to Rs 49.11 crore, a 35.3 per cent controlled figure from Rs 75.91 crore in FY17.

Now owned by the Little Internet Private Limited subsidiary of Paytm, since the beginning of FY19, has received over Rs 63 crore till now from the holding company. However,  a significant amount must have gone into covering the losses leaving a little to sustain on.

Looking at this as well as the minimal ownership of assets, the rumors circulating the industry saying NearBuy is on the

@nearbuy is shutting down. @warikoo has made his money and has fired all the top management. Salary is pending for junior staff. @uni_con1 @StartupKumar @Indobelly @jogia2740 @1NancyRider

— Corporate Kumar (@Corporatekumar_) February 23, 2019

" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> verge of shut down seems to be a plausible affair.

The end of the current fiscal is around the corner, and it should throw more light on the fate of the company. Rest, time will tell.