Indian fintech Paytm’s Q3 adjusted loss narrows sequentially as payments business recovers 

(Reuters) – India’s Paytm, on Monday, reported a narrower third-quarter adjusted loss compared with the previous quarter as its digital payments business recovered from the winding down of its payments bank unit.The company posted a loss of 2.04 billion rupees ($23.58 million) before exceptional items and tax for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to a 4.07-billion-rupee loss in the second quarter.On a net basis, Paytm’s loss was narrower than the 2.2 billion rupees loss it posted in the year-ago quarter. In the previous quarter, it reported its first-ever profit since listing due to a one-time gain from the sale of its ticketing business to food delivery company Zomato.Paytm’s revenue from operations rose 10.1% sequentially to 18.28 billion rupees, compared to a 34% sequential slide in the previous quarter when it reported a slower-than-anticipated improvement from the payment business wind-down.The country’s financial regulator wound down Paytm’s banking unit in January 2024, citing persistent compliance issues, sparking worries about its digital payments business and leading to a near 60% drop in Paytm’s stock within two weeks.Since then, however, it has received regulatory approval to run as a third-party app for existing digital payment customers and received clearance to sign on new Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users, helping the stock recover. ($1 = 86.4750 Indian rupees)(This story has been corrected to say 2.04 billion rupees, not 2.08 billion rupees in paragraph 2)(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Sethuraman NR; Editing by Savio D’Souza)