PayU Completes BillDesk Acquisition for $4.7 Billion

Prosus NV has canceled a $4.7 billion deal to buy Indian payments company BillDesk after terms of the deal were not met. The deal was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) last month, although the company said “certain preconditions” had not been met by the end of last month.

On August 31, 2021, Naspers announced that an agreement had been reached between PayU Payments Private Limited (PayU), a subsidiary of Prosus NV (Prosus), and shareholders of Indian digital payments provider BillDesk to acquire BillDesk for $4.7 billion. Founded in 2000, BillDesk is a leading payments company in the country.

“The closing of the transaction was subject to various pre-conditions including the approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). PayU received the CCI approval on September 5, 2022. However, certain pre-conditions were not fulfilled by September 30, 2022, the completion date of the agreement and the agreement was automatically terminated as per its terms and hence the proposed transaction will not be executed,” Prosus informed on Monday, October 3, 2022.

The proposed acquisition would make PayU, Prosus’ payments and fintech arm, one of the world’s leading online payments providers by total payments volume (TPV). The deal would create a digital payments giant with a total value of $147 billion and bet on growth in the industry in India. It would be the company’s largest acquisition to date. Naspers, through its Prosus subsidiary, says it has invested close to $6 billion in Indian technology companies since 2005.