Shares of PB Fintech, the parent company of PolicyBazaar and PaisaBazaar, saw a 5.80% rise to ₹646 apiece in early trade on Tuesday, led by management's optimistic outlook on the company's growth prospects.
“For FY24, our hope is that EBITDA coming out of core business will be more than enough to cover all investments, and overall, as a company, we should be PAT positive for the full year. What we want is ₹1,000 crore in PAT by FY27. Three years from now,” PB Fintech chairman and group CEO Yashish Dahiya told PTI.
"In another four years (FY27-28), we should be able to wipe out our accumulated losses," he added.
The breakeven will be reached only after accumulated losses are wiped out. This year, he said, the company would be ₹400–500 crore cash positive, and therefore, there may not be any need for an additional capital infusion.
The capital required would be obtained through internal accrual for existing business and new business, he added. The focus area for the company would be a new business, renewal revenue, and bringing down fixed cost, he said, adding new business gives scale, not profitability.
In Q4 FY23, the company showed a significant improvement in its financials. The net loss narrowed down to ₹9.34 crore compared to ₹219.61 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. Moreover, the revenue from operations witnessed substantial growth, reaching ₹869 crore in Q4FY23 from ₹540.30 crore in Q4FY22.
Looking at the overall fiscal year 2022–23, the company's net loss came down to ₹488 crore, over FY22's net loss of ₹833 crore. The total revenue for FY23 stood at 2,558 crore, an increase from 1,425 crore.
PB Fintech is engaged in providing integrated online marketing, IT consulting, and support services largely for the financial services industry, including insurance. PB Fintech operates PolicyBazaar, India's largest digital insurance marketplace, and PaisaBazaar, which provides services related to lending products.
The insurance and financial aggregator made a decent debut on the exchanges on November 15, 2021, listing at a premium of 22.7% at ₹1,202 apiece as against the issue price of ₹980. But it later failed to maintain the upward trend and finished CY21 with a 26.37% fall. This downturn extended to CY22, with the stock losing 52.38% of its value.
The stock, however, has made a solid comeback in the current year on improving financials. In CY23 so far, the scrip surged from ₹451 apiece to the current trading price of ₹633.60, resulting in a gain of 40.48%.
12 analysts polled by MintGenie on average have a 'buy' call on the stock.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of MintGenie.
