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Axis Bank to acquire Freecharge from Snapdeal for Rs 385 crore

Last Updated 27 July 2017, 13:56 IST

In a deal that marks the first such acquisition of a digital payments company by a bank in India, Axis Bank has decided to acquire 100% in FreeCharge Payment Technologies and Accelyst Solutions for Rs 385 crore ($60 million).

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to conclude in by end of September 2017.

FreeCharge is a leading pan-India digital payments company with over 50 million registered wallet users and over 2 lakh merchants. FreeCharge wallet is used extensively to make payments for telecom, DTH and broadband recharge and for utility payments including electricity, gas and water bills. Consumers across the country also use FreeCharge to pay for fuel purchases at HPCL & IOCL pumps, for travel and commute needs across IRCTC, redbus, Yatra.com, ClearTrip, goibibo.com, for food delivery and dining at Dominos, Zomato, Swiggy FreshMenu, foodpanda, for movie and event tickets at bookmyshow, Cinepolis and for their shopping needs across leading offline and online merchants including McDonalds (West and South), Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Café Coffee day, Barista, Heritage Fresh and many others.

"The acquisition of FreeCharge re-affirms Axis Bank's determination to lead the journey of digitisation of financial services. We expect FreeCharge to contribute significantly in our aspiration to serve the digital native and mobile-first young consumers of India," Axis Bank managing director and chief executive officer Shikha Sharma said.

"The Axis-FreeCharge combination is a potent one that has the potential to make a large impact on the digital payments and banking space.  It is a win-win deal that allows Snapdeal to further focus on our core e-commerce business while giving Axis some of the agilest and innovative technology capabilities in the financial services space in India," Snapdeal co-founder and chief executive officer Kunal Bahl said.

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(Published 27 July 2017, 13:56 IST)

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