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.
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