Infibeam gets board nod for profit-making CCAvenue acquisition

Distributed e-commerce market platform provider Infibeam will now offer e-payment gateway services as the company board has given nod for acquisition of one of the
early entrants in digital payment CCAvenue.

This will be all stock deal with 260 shares of Infibeam being given for every 100 shares of CCAvenue.

Earlier in Feb, Infibeam signed an agreement with Avenues India Private Limited (which runs CCAvenue) to invest ₹150 crore to acquire 7.5 per cent stake. In June 2016,
Infibeam had picked 3.85 per cent for around ₹50 crore through Infibeam subsidiary NSI Infinium Global Pvt Ltd. The investment puts CCAvenue’s valuation at Rs 2,000 crore.

Vishal Mehta, co-founder of CCAvenue had confirmed the development of merger. "Post the merger and the subsequent regulatory approvals, the promoters of CCAvenue will get the shares of Infibeam,” Mehta was quoted by The Hindu Business Line.

Mehta had mentioned that CCAvenue has been growing at a CAGR of more than 45% year-over-year, and would add another Rs 200 Crores into the services revenue’s portfolio and 50 Crores of net profits. He thinks that the synergistic opportunity will amplify their platform framework in the domestic markets and we can provide a one-stop solution to merchants to be able to onboard.

Infibeam had more than 66,000 merchants on its e-commerce platform.

Started in 2002, CCAvenue offers a multi-channel payment platform with tie-ups with more than 48 banks. CCAvenue is also planning to have Bharat Bill Payment System, which will facilitate all bill payments of utilities and services amongst others. Currently, CCAvenue has over 1 lakh merchants with annual transactions exceeding ₹15,000 crore.

CC Avenue reported a turnover of Rs 157.59 crores in FY17, according to the filing.