Policybazaar stock tanks 6% post weak Q3 show; down 40% from 52-week high

Shares of Policybazaar (listed as PB Fintech Limited) tanked 5.59 per cent to hit an intraday low of Rs 845.90 on BSE after the company reported a weak set of numbers for the quarter ended December 2021.   The company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 298 crore for the quarter ended December 2021. The firm had posted a net loss of Rs 195.9 crore in the year-ago period. However, revenue from operations jumped 73 per cent to Rs 367 crore on a year-on-year basis.   Policybazaar informed that insurance premium grew by 68 per cent YoY to Rs 1,796 crore and the credit disbursals grew by 94 per cent to Rs 1,926 crore.   Shares of Policybazaar had made a decent debut on Dalal Street. The scrip had listed at a premium of 17.34 per cent at Rs 1,150 on the NSE against the issue price of Rs 980. Currently, it is trading 14 per cent below its issue price.   Of late, the shares of all the new-age Internet companies have been under tremendous selling pressure, mirroring the global trend.   It hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,470 on November 11, 2021, and a 52-week low of Rs 726 on January 25, 2022. Currently, the stock is trading 40 per cent below its 52-week high and 20 per cent above its 52-week low.   Recently, the research house Morgan Stanley maintained its equal-weight stance on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,160 per share.   Commenting on the QIII FY22 results, Yashish Dahiya, Chairman and Group CEO of PB Fintech, said “Scale is critical to the success of any marketplace we are currently at an ARR of over Rs 8,000 crore which is a growth of 60 per cent year-on-year (YoY), we are now growing at scale. Margins in our existing businesses were maintained at 40 per cent."   "Renewal revenue is at an ARR of over Rs 210 crore, the renewal book operates at 90 per cent contribution margin and will be the biggest driver of our long-term profitability," he added.   “Paisabazaar has successfully navigated COVID and now is over Rs 8,400 crore ARR. Our new initiative, PB Partners (B2B2C) has become the market leader within 6 months of launch with an investment of under $10 million. PB Corporate is the fastest growing Corporate/MSME insurance business in the country and our UAE business is rapidly approaching market leadership. We have invested approximately Rs 200 crore in our brand and these new initiatives which will be value accretive in years to come," he said.   PB Fintech Ltd, the parent firm of Policybazaar, had received SEBI's nod for the IPO on October 19. PB Fintech also owns Paisabazaar, a vertical that seeks to make access to credit easier.

Policybazaar and Paisabazaar are the flagship platforms of PB Fintech Ltd. and are India’s largest online platform for insurance and lending products.