Prosus, a Dutch technology investment firm, has terminated its subsidiary PayU’s $4.7 billion acquisition of Indian digital payments processor BillDesk, citing failure to meet contract criteria.
Prosus said on its website that “certain preceding criteria were not met by the 30 September 2022 extended stop date, and the agreement has terminated automatically in line with its provisions.”
According to the company, it “remains committed to the Indian market and developing its current companies in the area.” In recent years, Prosus has completed a number of FinTech acquisitions in India, including CitrusPay, Paysense, and Wibmo. It has also invested in the credit provider ZestMoney, the wealth management business Fisdom, the eCommerce startup DotPe, and the credit platform Indiagold.
BillDesk has established itself as a payment gateway for a number of significant corporations, government institutions, and banks in India’s digital payment system.
Since the merger’s announcement last year, India’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has expressed worry that the agreement may result in a single company controlling too much of the market and has asked for further information from PayU and BillDesk.
If the purchase had gone through, PayU would have gained a large part of the Indian market. PayU said last year that the merged company will have handled $147 billion in yearly total payments value.
BillDesk, PayU, Razorpay, CCAvenue, and Paytm currently compete in India’s digital payments business.
Away from India, PayU has lately expanded its presence in Africa through a partnership with Payflex in South Africa and an entry into Ghana in June.
