 "Yashish Dahiya, chairman and CEO, PB Fintech, and Alok Bansal, its whole-time director and chief financial officer")
PB Fintech stock price fell 2 per cent to Rs 1,313.65 per share around 8.4 million shares, or 1.86 per cent of outstanding shares, changed hands on the exchanges via block deals.
At 9:44 AM, volume on the counter increased to 9 million shares, cumulatively, on both the exchanges. PB Fintech stock price, meanwhile, was down 0.56 per cent at Rs 1,333 apiece as against 0.22 per cent dip in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
On Thursday, May 16, PB Fintech informed the exchanges that Yashish Dahiya, chairman and CEO of the company, and Alok Bansal, vice chairman and whole-time director, would sell partial stakes in the company.
"Yashish Dahiya will sell up to 5.4 million equity shares; and Alok Bansal will sell up to 2.97 million equity shares. Substantial portions of the proceeds from the sale are proposed to be used to make the payment of taxes on current and future ESOP exercises," PB Fintech said in the filing.
On a post-sale basis, Yashish Dahiya will continue to have 4.83 per cent stake, while Alok Bansal will have a 1.63 per cent stake in PB Fintech on a fully diluted basis. The duo, the company said, plans no further sale of shares planned beyond this, at least for 1 year.
PB Fintech is engaged in providing integrated online marketing and IT consulting and support services largely for the financial services industry including insurance. It operates Policybazaar, India's largest digital insurance marketplace, and Paisabazaar that provides services related to lending products.
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During the March quarter of the previous financial year (Q4FY24), PB Fintech clocked a net profit of Rs 60.19 crore compared to a loss of Rs 9.34 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
The revenue from operations of the company grew 25.4 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 1,090 crore in the quarter under review, compared to Rs 869 crore in Q4 FY23.
For the entire financial year, PB Fintech's the net profit stood at Rs 64 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 488 crore in FY23. The consolidated operating revenue of the company rose 34 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 3,437 crore.
Core Platform business revenue jumped 32.6 per cent Y-o-Y off a high base (Q4FY23), led by a 39.5 per cent Y-o-Y surge in Core Platform premiums due to high sales of savings products. Despite strong growth in new health premiums, core adj. Ebitda margin improved 393bp Q-o-Q to 16.7 per cent, driving overall adjusted Ebitda to Rs 69 crore.
"While we are raising FY25/26 Ebitda by 57.4 per cent /41.8 per cent to build in higher growth and improved profitability, we maintain 'Reduce' rating on the stock given the stock's rich valuation. However, we revise our target to Rs 1,160 (earlier Rs 790) to factor-in Q4 beat," said analysts at Nuvama Institutional Equities in a post result note.
Those at Keynote Capital, too, downgraded the stock to 'Reduce' from 'Buy' as it believes most of the positives seem to be priced-in.
"The company stands at a pivotal juncture, driven by catalysts such as renewal commission growth, strategic expansion into tier-2/3 cities through offline channels, and rigorous cost management, all poised to generate favourable operating leverage. Further, the company has reported profitability for the first time on a yearly basis, and we expect this momentum to continue. But a lot of this optimism seems to be priced in," the brokerage said.
