PB Fintech Ltd. will turn profitable by fiscal 2024, according to its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Yashish Dahiya.
The Gurugram-headquartered insurance aggregator's net loss narrowed to Rs 186.6 crore in the September-ended quarter from Rs 204.3 crore from a year earlier.
The margin improvement from 33% to 45% was driven by better Paisabazaar margins and an increase in renewal revenue as a percentage of total revenue, Dahiya told BQ Prime's Sajeet Manghat. However, he said, the performance is "not yet driven by operating efficiency enhancement within Policybazaar".
"We should be fine on growth for the next few quarters and will continue to beat analyst expectations," Dahiya said. "As we scale into the future, the biggest change that will happen is the operating efficiency of Policybazaar. That has a lot of headroom for growth. I see a 10% enhancement in margins in the Policybazaar new business segment in the next 12-18 months."
Dahiya expects Policybazaar to register a Rs 50 crore in profit and Paisabazaar to make 'some profit' in the fourth quarter. But, the new initiatives segment will lose Rs 35 crore, while the company reports an interest income of around Rs 70 crore, he said.
"From a cash flow perspective, we would add about Rs 75 crore to the business," he said, but due to the non-cash ESOP charges of Rs 150 crore, PB Fintech will still make losses. However, on an annualised basis, it would be the last year of reporting losses as ESOP charges fall to Rs 75 crore per quarter, he said.
"So Paisabazaar and Policybazaar would start making more money while new initiative losses and ESOP charges come down," Dahiya said.
"According to me, FY24 would be the first year that as a company, we would make a profit on a profit-after-tax basis," he said.
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