PayU Defers IPO Plans, Eyes Public Listing In FY26 Now

Prosus-owned payments solutions major PayU India has reportedly delayed its public listing plans and now plans to go public in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26). 

The company was eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) in the second half (H2) of the ongoing calendar year 2024. However, it now plans to list on the bourses “sometime after the first quarter” of FY26, Entrackr reported, citing sources.

PayU has finalised Goldman Sachs as one of the lead bankers to helm the public issue and will likely file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) by early 2025. 

“As a responsible and trusted player in the payments sector, with the objective of make in India for the world, PayU has ambitions to scale and establish itself as an Indian group, eventually leading to us to become a public company. In terms of funding requirements, we always consider multiple avenues and access to public markets being an important source of long-term capital is also in our consideration,” said a PayU spokesperson.

The spokesperson added, “While we do not comment on any specific funding avenues, we maintain relentless focus on governance, compliance, and operational controls. We have also strengthened our overall governance by inducting a very experienced board and aspire to work under their guidance so that the organisation can be poised for future growth as a responsible and well governed group. These efforts on our end should not be seen as directed towards any specific outcome including public listing”.

This comes nearly a year after reports first surfaced that the fintech major was looking to file its IPO papers with markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an IPO of at least $500 Mn. 

At the time, it was reported that the company had appointed Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America as the advisors for the public listing.

Dutch tech investor Prosus operates PayU. The Indian subsidiary of the company, PayU India was launched in 2011, with Nitin Gupta and Shailaz Nag as its cofounders. 

The fintech company has been trying to go for an IPO on the Indian bourses for the past couple of years but has deferred the plans on account of multiple reasons. In 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) returned its payment aggregator (PA) licence due to its complex corporate structure and barred it from onboarding new merchants. 

Subsequently, in April this year, the company finally received the RBI’s in-principle approval to operate as a PA.

In India, PayU claims to have a merchant base of over 5 Lakh and generate over $60 Bn in total payments volume (TPV).

Besides, the company’s India revenue grew a mere 11% year-on-year (YoY) to $444 Mn in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) as against 31% and 40% YoY revenue growth in FY23 and FY22, respectively. It also reportedly slipped back into loss, which forced PayU India to lay off more than 100 employees from its credit team.

(The story has been updated to include PayU’s comments)  

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