CCI clears PayU’s acquisition of BillDesk

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared PayU’s acquisition of BillDesk after seeking multiple queries over the past year, paving the way for the largest consolidation in the fintech segment in India.

“Commission approves acquisition of 100% of the equity share capital of IndiaIdeas.com (BillDesk) by PayU Payments”, the competition watchdog tweeted on Monday.

This brings PayU owner Prosus’ total investments in India to $12 billion.

“CCI has unconditionally approved the proposed transaction involving the acquisition of IndiaIdeas.com (BillDesk) by PayU India. The proposed transaction involved novel assessment by the CCI of dynamic digital markets,” PayU said in a statement.

The deal was first announced last August but was held as CCI sought additional details from PayU.

PayU also had to respond to a show cause notice from CCI by August end, a person familiar with the deal said. It said the combined business would be positioned among the top 10 online payments players globally. This transaction will benefit customers and merchants, bringing more resilience and stability to the growing fintech ecosystem in India.

Trilegal represented Prosus and PayU, while Shardul Amarchand Managladas & Co acted as legal advisers for BillDesk.

“The CCI issued a show-cause notice with their prima facie competition concerns and sought an explanation as to why a detailed investigation in Phase II should not be undertaken. The Trilegal team advanced legal and economic arguments and successfully convinced the CCI to approve the transaction in phase 1 without any remedies,” a Trilegal spokesperson said.

“This is the first and only instance of the CCI clearing the transaction unconditionally (i.e. without any remedies) after issuing a show-cause notice,” the Trilegal spokesperson said, adding that senior advocate Aditya Sondhi appeared before the CCI in response to the show-cause notice.