CCI clears PayU’s $4.7 billion BillDesk acquisition after a year

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has cleared PayU’s $4.7-billion acquisition of online payments firm BillDesk, the antitrust regulator said on Monday evening. This comes after a year-long wait for Prosus-owned PayU which had to answer several questions from the regulator after the deal was announced in August 2021.
After the CCI clearance came through, PayU India said the proposed transaction "involved novel assessment by the CCI of dynamic digital markets". "Prosus firmly believes that this acquisition of BillDesk will have significant pro-competitive benefits for the Indian economy and will strengthen the Indian digital payments market, which is fully regulated by the Reserve Bank of India. This acquisition by PayU of BillDesk is also consistent with the government of India’s Digital India mission and will benefit Indian merchants, government institutions and consumers," said Anirban Mukherjee, CEO, PayU India.

ET had reported in February this year that CCI had sought more information on the deal and its implications from PayU.

The deal-- pegged as the second-largest buyout in the Indian internet sector after Walmart’s $ 16 billion acquisition of ecommerce major Flipkart in 2018—will involve the merger of the payments gateway business of two of the country’s largest players and securing clearance from the CCI is important, sources said.

PayU had filed a revised merger notification in April this year after CCI made its original filing invalid for lack of adequate information, as reported by ET. In its revised plea seeking clearance of the deal, PayU had said the proposed transaction "will not cause any appreciable adverse effect on competition in any of the above relevant markets or their constituent segments.”