Paytm’s acquisition of general insurer Raheja Qbe canceled as it misses deadline
BENGALURU: One97 Communications Ltd., owner of digital payment company Paytm, said its share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of Raheja QBE General Insurance Company Ltd. was terminated because its transaction could not be finalized within the agreed time frame.
Paytm reiterated its intention to enter the general insurance business as it is extremely optimistic about its potential. Paytm, in a regulatory filing, said it remained bullish on its general insurance roadmap, “and we intend to seek the required approvals for a new general insurance license, in which we hold a majority stake of 74% from the outset”.
The deal was announced in July 2020. Group company Raheja Prism Johnson Ltd said in a stock market filing at the time that it would sell its stake in the insurer to QorQl Pvt. Ltd, a technology company majority owned by Sharma and Paytm, for ₹289.68 crores ($38.8 million). In 2020, Paytm gave up its corporate agency license in exchange for a brokerage license to enter the insurance business.
Raheja QBE was created in 2007. In 2015, QBE Group increased its stake in Raheja QBE to 49% compared to 26% for ₹102.9 crores ($15.8 million at the time). The Mumbai-based company offers personal insurance, commercial insurance and family insurance services. In May last year, the company announced that it had appointed Pankaj Arora of Liberty General Insurance as managing director and managing director.
Paytm also shared its commercial operating figures for April. Paytm’s lending business now has an annualized run rate of ₹20,000 crores. In April, the company disbursed 2.6 million loans through its platform worth ₹1,657 crore, or about $221 million.
It also saw over 100% year-over-year growth in total merchant payment volume, aggregated to ₹0.95 lakh crore ($12.7 billion). Paytm’s monthly transaction users stood at 73.5 million. In the offline payments segment, the company’s total device deployment across India exceeded 3 million, Paytm said in a separate filing.
Shares of One97 Communications rose 3% in opening trades on Monday.