Indian digital payments giant Paytm is embarking on a share buyback of up to $103 million as it seeks to steady a stock price that has been in freefall since an IPO last year.
The Paytm board has approved a plan to buy up to 10.5 million shares at 810 rupees each, a 50% premium on Tuesday's closing price but a 62% discount on the November 2021 IPO price of 2150 rupees.
Paytm raised about $2.5 billion in India's biggest ever IPO when it listed on the Mumbai stock market but shares fell by more than 27% on the market debut and have since continued to spiral.
Founded in 2009 as a digital payments platform, Paytm has been at the forefront of India's move to digital payments and has also diversified into new areas in recent years, including credit cards and wealth management.
However, profits have proven elusive - for the quarter ending in September, the company recorded a net loss of 5.7 billion rupees, despite a 76% increase in revenues.
Says CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma: "Over the last year, there is clear business momentum, and we are ahead of our plans.
"Looking at the monetisation opportunities in our core payment and credit business, we feel confident to generate healthy revenues and cash flows to invest in sales, marketing and technology."