PayU calls off $4.7 bn acquisition of Indian payments firm BillDesk

Prosus has scrapped the $4.7 billion acquisition deal with Indian payment firm BillDesk . The company said “certain conditions” were unfulfilled by the 30 September 2022 long stop date, and the agreement has terminated automatically in accordance with its terms and, accordingly, the proposed transaction will not be implemented while PayU secured CCI approval on September 5, 2022.

Prosus, the global investment arm of South African multinational Nasper, had on August 31 last year announced acquisition of BillDesk in an all-cash deal to expand its footprint in India's booming fintech sector under the umbrella of its payment gateway PayU.

As per the source, PayU had secured CCI approval on September 5, 2022, "certain conditions precedent were not fulfilled by September 30, 2022 long stop date and the agreement has terminated automatically in accordance with its terms and, accordingly, the proposed transaction will not be implemented," it said.

As per the source, the deal would have allowed Prosus, to dominate the market of payments processing in India. BillDesk powers payments for most of Indian government departments. At the time of the acquisition, Prosus said the high price tag was justified because of the scalability of the combined businesses.

However, Prosus observed that, the payments market in India has shown cracks in recent quarters and did not wish to go forward with honoring last year’s arrangement, as per the sources.