Indian Adani group plans e-commerce, payment ventures, Retail News, ET Retail

India’s Adani Group is considering applying for a license to operate on the country’s public digital payments network and is in talks with banks to finalize plans for a co-branded credit card, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Plans to dial in consumer businesses come as billionaire Gautam Adani’s ports and power plant conglomerate considers spending $84 billion on infrastructure over the next decade.

If approved, the group would enter India’s growing digital payments market and compete with incumbents such as Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePe.

The Indian payments market is expected to reach $814.43 billion in 2029 from $357.51 billion in 2024, according to a report by Mordor Intelligence.

April data shows that PhonePe is the largest UPI app in India with 48.9% market share, followed by Google Pay with 37.7% share.

The Adani Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.

According to the report, the group is also in talks to enable online shopping through India’s government-backed public e-commerce platform Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

Once finalized, the services will be available through Adani’s consumer app Adani One, which was launched in December 2022, the report added.

The conglomerate is trying to recover from a January 2023 report by US retailer Hindenburg that led to a sell-off in the group’s listed shares.

The report accused the group of manipulating shares and improperly using tax havens – allegations the group rejected.

A court-appointed panel found in May 2023 that India’s market watchdog had “failed to take note” of the case, while in January this year the country’s highest court said there was no need for further review.

So far, four of the group’s seven companies have exceeded pre-Hinderburg reporting levels, including Friday’s recovery of Adani Enterprises.

Shares of the flagship company are currently approximately 4% lower than before the report.