Following CCI approval, Prosus cancels the $4.7 billion PayU-BillDesk agreement
- ByStartupStory | October 3, 2022
The $4.7 billion agreement to buy Indian payments gateway company BillDesk through its Indian subsidiary PayU Payments has been cancelled, according to Prosus, the worldwide investment arm of South African multinational Naspers.
The deal was automatically ended, according to a statement made by Eoin Ryan, director of investor relations at Prosus, since “certain conditions antecedent were not achieved by the 30 September 2022 long stop date.”
The fulfilment of many prerequisite requirements, including clearance by the Competition Commission of India, was a prerequisite for the transaction’s closing (CCI). The CCI granted PayU permission on September 5, 2022. Ryan stated on the corporate blog that the proposed sale will not go through because “certain conditions precedent were not satisfied by the September 30, 2022 long stop date, and the Agreement has terminated automatically in accordance with its provisions.
Prosus announced on August 31, 2021 that it will buy BillDesk for $4.7 billion in an all-cash purchase to increase its presence in the nation’s burgeoning fintech industry through its payment gateway PayU. Following the Walmart-Flipkart merger in 2018, this was ranked as the second-largest M&A in India.The combined company was predicted to handle $147 billion in annualised total payments value (TPV), more than twice the amount processed by Razorpay, the company that was the merger’s closest competitor with $80 billion in TPV.
After waiting for a year, the market watchdog in India, CCI, approved PayU’s acquisition of BillDesk on September 6. After the acquisition was announced in August 2021, the regulator contacted PayU with a number of queries, and in April, PayU submitted a revised merger notification.
Since 2005, Prosus has invested $6 billion in India’s technology startups, including Swiggy, Byju’s, and Pharmeasy. Prosus stated on Monday that it “remains dedicated to the Indian market and growing its existing companies inside the region.”
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