The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given its nod for the $4.7-billion acquisition of online payment gateway provider BillDesk by Prosus-backed PayU India, reported Hindu Business Line.
This is the largest combination ever approved by the competition watchdog in the fintech space.
This acquisition will witness PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus, operating in more than 20 markets, becoming a leading online payment providers globally by payment volume.
This deal will also take Prosus investments in India to over $10 billion.
The combination approved by CCI related to the acquisition of 100 per cent of equity share capital of Indiaideas.com Limited (IIL), which is an unlisted company that uses the name BillDesk as its trading/business/brand name in India, by PayU Payments Private Ltd (PayU India).
The shares of PayU India are indirectly held by Prosus NV (Prosus), which is a Euronext Amsterdam-listed global consumer Internet group, and one of the leading technology investors in the world.
IIL primarily provides payment aggregation services that enables merchants (and other entities) to receive payments from their customers across various digital payment methods.
BillDesk was founded in 2000 by Ajay Kaushal, MN Srinivasu and Karthik Ganapathy, and was backed by investors, including Clearstone, Visa and Temasek.