Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma: My Stock Grants to be Vested Only When Our Market Cap Crosses the IPO Level In a letter to shareholders, he has also said that Paytm is committed to building a profitable company and believes that it should be operating EBITDA breakeven in the next 6 quarters

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO and founder of fintech giant Paytm has said that he will be granted his employee stock options (ESOP) only when the market capitalization of the company crosses the level it was at during the initial public offering (IPO).

In a letter to shareholders, he wrote, "Against the backdrop of volatile market conditions for high growth stocks globally, our shares are down significantly from the IPO price. Rest assured, the entire Paytm team is committed to build a large, profitable company and to create long-term shareholder value.".

The fintech firm had granted ESOPs to Sharma for the first time in September 2021. This announcement comes in the backdrop of Paytm's dismal debut on stock markets in mid-November last year. Since then, its share price has more than halved against the issue price.

In the letter, he has also said that the fintech firm is committed to building a profitable company and believes that it should be operating EBITDA breakeven in the next 6 quarters.

"While we will publish our fiscal 2022 financial results in due course, we are encouraged by our business momentum, scale of monetization and operating leverage. We expect this to continue, and I believe we should be operating EBITDA breakeven in next 6 quarters (i.e. EBITDA before ESOP cost, and by the quarter ending September 2023), well ahead of estimates by most analysts. Importantly, we are going to achieve this without compromising any of our growth plans," Paytm's Sharma said.

Following the company's announcement of its operating performance for the last quarter of the financial year 2021-22, shares of its parent company, One97 Communications surged by over 4 per cent.