PayU-BillDesk Deal Collapses at Last Minute

Dutch technology investment giant Prosus has canceled its subsidiary PayU’s $4.7 billion acquisition of Indian digital payments processor BillDesk, saying conditions of the deal had not been met.

In a Monday (Oct. 3) announcement on its website, Prosus said that “certain conditions precedent were not fulfilled by the 30 September 2022 long stop date, and the agreement has terminated automatically in accordance with its terms.”

The firm added that it “remains committed to the Indian market and growing its existing businesses within the region.” Prosus has made a number of FinTech acquisitions in India in recent years including the purchases of CitrusPay, Paysense and Wibmo. It has also taken stakes in credit provider ZestMoney, wealth management firm Fisdom, eCommerce startup DotPe and credit platform Indiagold.

BillDesk has entrenched itself in India’s digital payment system and now acts as a payment gateway for a number of large businesses, government organizations and banks.

Since the announcement of the merger last year, India’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), had raised concerns that the deal would lead to a single business taking too much of the market and requested additional information from PayU and BillDesk in April.

Had the deal gone through, it would have given PayU a significant share of the Indian market. Last year PayU announced that the combined firm would have processed $147 billion in annualized total payments value.

As things stand, BillDesk, PayU, Razorpay, CCAvenue and Paytm all compete in India’s digital payments market.

Away from India, PayU has recently grown its footprint in Africa thanks to a partnership with Payflex in South Africa and an expansion into Ghana in June

See also: PayU Boosts African Footprint With Ghana, New BNPL, QR Products

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