As part of the settlement in the ESOPs (Employee Stock Options) case, SEBI has banned Paytm’s founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma from taking new ESOPs for 3 years. Along with this, the ESOPs given by One97 have been cancelled. SEBI has also imposed a fine of ?1.11 crore on both Paytm and Vijay Shekhar. Apart from this, a fine of ?57.11 lakh has been imposed on the company’s CBO Ajay Shekhar Sharma. Ajay will also have to return ?35.86 lakh earned by selling 3,720 shares received from ESOPs. Vijay had surrendered 2.1 crore ESOPs Earlier on April 16, Vijay Shekhar Sharma surrendered 21 million i.e. 2.1 crore Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) received in 2019. SEBI had issued a show cause notice in 2024 for violating the rules for providing share-based employee benefits. In August 2024, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had said that granting 2.1 crore employee stock options (ESOPs) to Vijay Shekhar Sharma was in violation of its rules governing share-based employee benefits. As per Indian rules, large shareholders who have the ability to influence the company’s decisions cannot hold ESOPs. ESOP or Employee Stock Ownership Plan is a scheme in which the company offers shares of the company to its employees which are usually at a price lower than the market value. It is a type of employee benefit that gives employees a stake in the company. Understand the whole matter in 5 points… Vijay and Ajay both left ESOP ESOP expense will increase by ?492 crore in the fourth quarter The filing said that ESOP expense will increase by ?492 crore in the fourth quarter of FY 2025 and ESOP expense will decrease in future years. Paytm said that the company will share details on its ESOP cost schedule along with its Q4 FY 2025 results. Paytm suffers loss of ?208 crore in the third quarter Paytm’s parent company One 97 Communications’ net loss has reduced to Rs 208 crore in the third quarter (October-December) of FY 2024-25. Paytm’s loss was Rs 220 crore in the same quarter a year ago. The company’s revenue fell 36% to Rs 1,828 crore in the October-December quarter. It was Rs 2,850 crore in the same quarter a year ago, i.e., Q3FY24. In the second quarter, Paytm had a net profit of ? 930 crore, the sale of movie ticketing business had a one-time contribution of ? 1,345 crore to the company’s net profit. Excluding this amount, Paytm had a loss of ? 415 crore. Paytm was started in 2009. Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications launched the Paytm payment app in August 2009. Its founder is Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Currently, Paytm has more than 30 crore users in the country. The market cap of Paytm is around Rs 28 thousand crore.
