PayU India Gears Up For Potential Public Listing

Prosus-backed digital payments giant PayU is exploring the options for a public listing of its Indian entities. The development comes after it sold off a major subsidiary, PayU Global Payments Organisation, to Israeli payments processing company Rapyd for $610 Mn.

The South Africa-headquartered payments giant has started preparing for a public listing. However, as of now, there are no timelines in sight, according to an ET report.

Prosus will eventually look at a major public listing of PayU India as a move to monetise from the business and also help establish PayU as a local payment player, the report added.

Last year in December, the fintech giant also onboarded hired former Nykaa executive Arvind Agarwal on board as its CFO.

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Prosus wants to focus on PayU India’s credit business for its public listing, keeping the focus around both LazyPay and PaySense to grow its lending business locally.

Looking at the big picture, PayU wants to focus on its fintech business in India, Turkey and South East Asia, selling its remaining business interests in Latin America, Africa and parts of Europe to London-headquartered Rapyd. The deal, which is yet to get regulatory approval, is valued at $610 Mn.

While it announced the sell-off, the company took the opportunity to showcase its commitment to India. “We are now fully focused on the huge fintech opportunity in India, where PayU is the leading payments service provider and is rapidly expanding its credit offering,” said Bob Van Dijk, CEO, Prosus, adding that the investor believes in digital India and is excited about the next phase of growth for PayU in India.

PayU India has its fair share of challenges as well. The company was told in January this year to reapply for its payment aggregator licence by the Reserve Bank of India. The licence is needed to start its merchant onboarding business in India again.

PayU has backed several fintech startups in India since 2016. The company picked up Citrus Pay in 2016, founded by Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau and Jupiter cofounder Jitendra Gupta.

It also made strategic investments in the beleaguered buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) startup ZestMoney, alongside Fisdom and Dotpe. Though it tried to acquire one of its competitors Billdesk for an eyewatering $4.7 Bn, the deal fell through in October 2022.

PayU India’s potential IPO also comes as the likes of PhonePe are preparing for a public listing as well. Along similar lines, Paytm, which went public in 2021, has been bullish on its lending business over the past two years. Per its Q1 FY24 performance update, the fintech giant had issued 24.7 Mn loans worth INR 27,399 Cr so far in 2023.