Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma takes a pay cut in FY18
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of One97 Communications Ltd, took a salary cut for the financial year ended March 2018, a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) shows.
Sharma’s salary went down from Rs 3.47 crore per annum in 2016-17 to Rs 3 crore in 2017-18. This does not include stock-based benefits.
His pay cheque is based on the One97 business unit. It is not clear whether the e-commerce or the payments bank businesses are factored into his salary.
In 2016-17, Sharma was the second-highest paid tech entrepreneur in the country, according to VCCircle estimates based on MCA filings. In 2015-16, he had taken home Rs 3.1 crore.
Ajay Shekhar Sharma, senior vice president at Paytm, saw a slight increase in his pay from Rs 94 lakh in 2016-17 to Rs 97 lakh in 2017-18.
The remuneration of Amit Sinha, the chief operating officer of Paytm’s e-commerce marketplace Paytm Mall, dropped from Rs 70 lakh in 2016-17 to Rs 25 lakh in 2017-18.
However, Paytm’s senior vice president and chief financial officer Madhur Deora saw his salary more than double in the same period from Rs 74 lakh to Rs 1.62 crore.
Email queries sent to a Paytm spokesperson, seeking comments, did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.
On Wednesday, TechCircle had reported that One97 Communications Ltd had posted a deeper net loss for the financial year 2018 as it separated its digital wallet and e-commerce businesses under the Paytm brand.
The company’s consolidated net loss for 2017-18 expanded to Rs 1,604 crore from Rs 899 crore the year before, its filings with the Registrar of Companies showed. Pre-tax loss widened to Rs 1,598 crore for 2017-18 from Rs 668 crore.
On Tuesday, One97 said it had received investment from billionaire Warren Buffett-led multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. While the company didn’t disclose the amount, multiple media reports pegged the deal value at around Rs 2,500 crore ($356 million).
One97 had hived off its e-commerce and payments businesses under Paytm E-Commerce Pvt. Ltd and Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, respectively, in 2016. Last year, it launched its payments bank and moved its digital wallet Paytm under this unit. Sharma owned 51% of Paytm Payments Bank while One97 held the remaining stake.
Paytm E-Commerce is majority-owned by Alibaba Group Holdings, after the Chinese conglomerate put in $200 million into the entity along with venture capital firm SAIF Partners in June 2017. Japan's SoftBank Group Corp holds a significant minority stake in Paytm E-commerce, which operates Paytm Mall, after investing about $400 million in the company.
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