Competition Regulator gives the go-ahead for PayU's $4.7-billion acquisition of BillDesk

Competition Regulator gives the go-ahead for PayU's $4.7-billion acquisition of BillDesk

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), on 5 September 2022, has paved way for Prosus Ventures backed payments service provider PayU's $4.7-billion acquisition of payment gateway platform BillDesk. The development comes almost a year after the deal was signed. After Walmart's $16-billion acquisition of Flipkart in 2018, this deal is touted to be one of the largest in the internet segment in India.

The acquisition will allow PayU's lead investor Prosus Ventures to scale up its payments and fintech business in India and abroad. PayU currently operates which operates in more than 20 markets, as one of the leading online payment providers globally by total payment volume (TPV), aggregating $147 billion.

As the deal was flagged to be potentially causing monopoly issue in the payment gateway space, the deal was delayed for almost a year as the Competition Regulator sought additional information from both parties.

According to the Press Release by CCI, "The proposed combination relates to the acquisition of 100% stake of equity share capital of IndiaIdeas.com Limited (IIL) by PayU." The detailed order from the Commission is awaited.

This is PayU's fourth fintech acquisition in India in less than five years, after CitrusPay, Paysense and Wibmo.