One 97 Communications Q2 FY27 results: net profit ₹225 crore vs ₹21 crore, revenue up 28.5%

How did One 97 Communications perform in Q2 FY27?

One 97 Communications reported consolidated revenue of ₹2,648 crore for Q2 FY27, compared with ₹2,061 crore in Q2 FY26 and ₹2,448 crore in Q1 FY27. EBITDA was ₹270 crore, with a margin of 10.2%, against ₹141 crore and 6.8% a year earlier and ₹203 crore and 8.3% in the previous quarter.

Profit before tax was ₹295 crore in Q2 FY27, compared with ₹31 crore in Q2 FY26 and ₹247 crore in Q1 FY27. Net profit was ₹225 crore and basic EPS was ₹3.52, compared with ₹21 crore and ₹0.33 in the year-ago quarter and ₹220 crore and ₹3.44 in the previous quarter.

On a standalone basis, revenue was ₹1,199 crore, down 28.7% year on year, and profit after tax was ₹169 crore. The board approved the unaudited standalone and consolidated results for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2026.

What changed in One 97 Communications' costs and profit?

Total expenses were ₹2,531 crore in Q2 FY27, up ₹469 crore or 22.7% from ₹2,062 crore in Q2 FY26. Employee cost increased by ₹96 crore to ₹759 crore, other expenses by ₹362 crore to ₹1,619 crore, depreciation by ₹9 crore to ₹146 crore and finance costs by ₹2 crore to ₹7 crore.

Other income fell by ₹40 crore to ₹182 crore from ₹222 crore in the year-ago quarter. The company reported an exceptional charge of ₹4 crore in Q2 FY27, compared with an exceptional charge of ₹190 crore in Q2 FY26; Q1 FY27 had no exceptional item.

Tax expense was ₹67 crore in Q2 FY27, up ₹58 crore from ₹9 crore in Q2 FY26. The company said revenue and contribution profit were growing faster than indirect expenses, while the earnings release attributed margin expansion to cost efficiency and structural operating leverage.

How did the first half of FY27 go?

In the first half of FY27, revenue was ₹5,096 crore, compared with ₹3,979 crore in H1 FY26, an increase of ₹1,117 crore or 28.1%. Total income rose 22.9% to ₹5,460 crore from ₹4,442 crore.

Profit before tax for H1 FY27 was ₹542 crore, up ₹385 crore or 245.2% from ₹157 crore in H1 FY26. Profit after tax was ₹445 crore, an increase of ₹301 crore or 209.0%, while EPS rose to ₹6.97 from ₹2.26.

What do the balance sheet and cash flow show?

Total assets at September 30, 2026 were ₹24,438 crore, compared with ₹23,915 crore at March 31, 2026, while total equity rose to ₹16,615 crore from ₹16,028 crore. The company reported no borrowings at both dates.

Cash and cash equivalents fell to ₹2,495 crore at September 30, 2026 from ₹3,285 crore at March 31, 2026. Trade receivables were ₹1,215 crore, compared with ₹1,186 crore, and trade payables were ₹943 crore, compared with ₹889 crore.

H1 FY27 operating cash flow was ₹415 crore, compared with ₹44 crore in H1 FY26. Investing cash flow was negative ₹1,226 crore against negative ₹373 crore, financing cash flow was negative ₹23 crore against negative ₹24 crore, and capital expenditure was ₹434 crore compared with ₹202 crore.

How has One 97 Communications done over the last 8 quarters?

Revenue rose in each of the last six quarters year on year, reaching ₹2,648 crore in Q2 FY27, its highest level in the series shown. Q2 FY27 also recorded the highest EBITDA margin, at 10.2%, while profit after tax was ₹225 crore.

Profit after tax was negative ₹208.5 crore in Q3 FY25 and negative ₹544.6 crore in Q4 FY25, then moved to ₹122.5 crore in Q1 FY26 and remained positive through Q2 FY27. The EBITDA margin recovered from negative 12.2% in Q3 FY25 to 10.2% in Q2 FY27.

What else did the company announce?

The board approved unaudited standalone and consolidated financial results for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2026. It also approved additional investments of up to INR 500 Crores in Paytm Cloud Technologies Limited and up to INR 500 Crores in Paytm Singapore, in one or more tranches over the next twelve months.

The company said the subsidiary investments would support PCTL and Paytm Singapore’s future working-capital requirements, investments and business expansion. The board also approved Default Loss Guarantee on loans disbursed by lending partners, and authorised Madhur Deora and Sunil Kumar Bansal to determine materiality and disseminate material disclosures to the exchanges.

What did the auditors point out?

S.R. Batliboi & Associates LLP reviewed the consolidated results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 and the year to date under SRE 2410 and said nothing had come to its attention indicating that the statement had failed to disclose required information or contained any material misstatement. The review was substantially less in scope than an audit, and the auditors did not express an audit opinion.

The auditors included an Emphasis of Matter referring to a Show Cause Notice received by the holding company and two subsidiaries from the Directorate of Enforcement alleging contraventions of provisions of FEMA and rules framed under it. They stated that management’s plans were set out in the relevant note and that their conclusion was not modified in respect of that matter.

What did One 97 Communications' management say?

Management quantified an indicative 2.5 bps uplift in overall Payments Processing Margin from the proposed UPI MDR implementation, expected to stabilise in 2–3 quarters after implementation. It described the benefit as bottom-line accretive and said payments processing margin was comfortably above 4 bps currently.

Management said device capex for FY27 was expected to be about ₹400 crore on an inward device-count basis, with the total broadly similar. It expected absolute EBITDA to rise in Q3 FY27 despite a front-loaded DLG expense drag and said EBITDA margin was not expected to decline; no formal revenue or EBITDA range was given.

Management set a target of one-third of consumer market share and said AI merchant monetization through subscriptions, transaction fees and platform fees was expected to begin picking up in about one year from the call. It also expected roughly ₹9,000 crore of quarterly Paytm Postpaid disbursements in FY28-FY29 and said indirect expenses should grow at less than half of revenue or contribution-margin growth over three to four quarters.

Management identified risks from the NPCI-controlled start date and final framework for UPI MDR, competitive intensity around UPI monetisation, front-loaded DLG charges, the time needed for material AI merchant monetization, and credit quality, collections and regulatory pricing in a fast-scaling lending book. Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “Consumer market share is ours to win.”

How did One 97 Communications shares react?

After the filing appeared after market hours, the stock fell 1.6% in five minutes, 2.0% in 15 minutes and 1.3% in 30 minutes. On the reaction day it closed 3.2% below the previous close; by the next day’s close it was down 2.0% from the pre-results close, and by five sessions it was up 3.0%.

The Fintech industry median rose 0.9% on the reaction day, 1.4% by the next day and 2.6% by five sessions. Paytm therefore underperformed the industry median by 4.1 percentage points on the reaction day and 3.5 percentage points by the next day, while its five-session excess return was 0.4 percentage points.

How did other Financial Technology (Fintech) companies do?

Five other Financial Technology companies had filed for the quarter by November 4, 2026. Their median revenue growth was 24.0%, compared with One 97 Communications’ revenue growth of 28.5% in Q2 FY27.

Four peers grew more slowly than One 97 Communications and one grew faster. Four of the five peers reported higher profit.