India's Paytm CEO says there will be no more cash burn

MUMBAI (Reuters) - SoftBank-backed Paytm said on Wednesday that going ahead there will be no more cash burn in the business and that the Indian digital payments firm was far ahead on re-setting its ambition on controlling spends.

"It has got decided last month that it (cash burn) would no more be continuing. As far as Paytm is concerned, we have publicly declared that we are far ahead of our ambitions — far meaning the border of magnitude ahead — in terms of re-setting our cash burns" founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said at newspaper Business Standard's annual banking event.

In November, Paytm said it would become free cash flow positive in the next 12-18 months.

Paytm had net cash, cash equivalents and investable balance of 91.82 billion rupees at the end of September, according to its latest quarterly earnings report.

CLSA had also upgraded Paytm last month saying that cash burn could end in another four to six quarters.

Formally known as One97 Communications, Paytm listed last year after a mega $2.5 billion initial public offer (IPO). Since then, however, the stock has plunged as investors worried about the sky-high valuations of tech companies amid fears of a global economic recession.

As of last close, the stock was down over 75% from its IPO offer price of 2,150 rupees.

(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Writing by Nupur Anand; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)