Prosus NV has agreed to acquire Indian online payment service BillDesk for 345 billion rupees (US$4.7 billion), making its largest global acquisition to date in the Asian nation.
The European investment powerhouse’s PayU unit has struck a deal to buy the 11-year-old start-up, creating a digital payment giant with a total volume of US$147 billion. It would take Prosus’ investment in India to more than US$10 billion to date, the company said in a statement.
Prosus, whose biggest investment is Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), would be getting in on an Indian payment arena on the cusp of taking off.
More than 200 million more people would adopt digital payment there over the next three years, fueling a 10-fold increase in annual transactions per person to 220, Prosus said, citing Indian central bank estimates.
The Prosus deal could intensify competition in the teeming sector. Hundreds of start-ups from BillDesk to Walmart Inc’s PhonePe and Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團)-backed Paytm Ecommerce Pvt are pitching customers everything from microloans to gold trading.
BillDesk, backed by Visa Inc, was one of the pioneers of online payments in India, alongside larger rival Paytm. Its services are common especially among retailers in the nation.
Investor interest in India is accelerating as Beijing pursues a campaign to rein in tech sectors from online commerce and fintech to gaming.
India had a record US$6.3 billion of funding and deals for technology start-ups in the second quarter, while funding to China-based companies dropped 18 percent from a peak of US$27.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, according to data from research firm CB Insights.
The acquisition would be Prosus’ largest to date, eclipsing its roughly US$1.8 billion Stack Exchange Inc investment, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its PayU unit grew total payment volume 51 percent in the year ended March to US$55 billion, Prosus said.
Prosus was spun out of Naspers Ltd in 2019 to diversify away from South Africa and give investors more direct exposure to its broad portfolio of tech businesses.
Cape Town-based Naspers was an early-stage investor in Tencent and has tried for years to close the valuation gap as the Chinese business’ value soared.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS