Paytm shares continue to decline, founder Vijay Sharma’s net worth takes big hit

Paytm which sought market capitalisation of Rs 1.5 lakh crore at IPO was down to little over Rs 87,860.52 crore as of Monday morning. At 11 am Monday, One97 Communications shares crashed 13.17% or Rs 205.50 to trade at Rs 1,355.30 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The share price is down 36% from its IPO price, with no urge to hit a trough yet.The company’s market capitalization slid to Rs 87,8605.29 crore from its IPO valuation of Rs 1.50 lakh crore demanded at Rs 2150 issue upper price brand. So far, investors have lost over Rs 63,000 crore, which faces critique of overpricing the IPO and not holding a clear path to the profitability of even a company model moving forward.

On Thursday, the stock hit a lower circuit and retreated after a brief interval to fall some more. It ended the day at Rs 1,564.15, down by 27.25% from its issue price of Rs 2,150.The collapse of Paytm shares noticed founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s net worth erode from $2.5 billion IPO value to less than $781 million as of Monday morning. Sharma holds 9.1% stake in the corporation or around six crore equity shares and 2.1 crore options in the firm.Global brokerage report Macquarie, published on Paytm’s listing day, had valued the stock at Rs 1200 at a valuation of 0.5 times price to sales growth multiple on December 23 annual sale. “Paytm has been a cash-burning machine, spinning off several business lines with no visibility on achieving profitability. Unless Paytm lends, it can’t make significant money by merely being a distributor,” said the Macquarie report.Soon after a debut fiasco on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Vijay Shekhar Sharma founder of Paytm is learnt to have told employees not to get perturbed by the market perception and focus solely on expanding the business adding that their execution will predict the outcome of the company.