Investors seek clarity, would be happier if PB Fintech remains less capital intensive: Manas Agrawal, Bernstein

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Manas Agrawal of Bernstein Societe Generale Group, says the last three days have been very volatile for PB Fintech. So, clarity on offline expansion front will be helpful. Bernstein has written a note where it talks about the key questions for the management. Essentially, what is the business plan? It is good for the consumer and probably good for hospitals and insurers and therefore good for Policybazaar, but then at what cost does all of this come up, that is the key question at this point in time in my mind.

ET Now: Just going by the fact that the offline healthcare foray is something that PB Fintech has been looking at for the past many years in terms of this new foray, how are you looking at this backward integration with hospitals as to what it could potentially mean?
Manas Agrawal: Media broke the story, and the company has not denied it. Yashish has spoken about it in the previous concalls as well. So, it seems like they want to do this. Now, how they go about doing this is the question, is it going to be capital intensive or it will be a partnership of sorts, it seems like that is the big question that is weighing on the stock because people bought into the story for PB Fintech for its strong growth, its capital light business model.

I think investor communication on that front would be helpful in cooling off speculation. And I think the stock has now stabilised. But the last three days have been very volatile. So, clarity on that front will be helpful. We have written a note today, which talks about the