Ingenico Group to buy Indian payment services firm TechProcess

Mumbai: France-based Ingenico Group has entered into an in-principle agreement to acquire a 100% equity stake in TechProcess Payment Services, an Indian payments processing solutions and services provider, for an undisclosed sum, it said in a statement.

The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. However, sources privy to the matter told Mint that Ingenico has shelled out approximately Rs 600 crore for the acquisition of TechProcess. Avendus Capital was the advisor to this transaction.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

The acquisition of TechProcess, an electronic payment company which owns Billjunction, will support the strategy of Ingenico Group in India.

Ingenico is a player in online payments through its ePayments entity EBS and has a 50% market share of credit card swipe machines installed in the country.

As a result of this deal, Ingenico Group will further expand its footprint in the country and ultimately, offer cross-border capabilities, the statement said.

“Based on its already leading position in terminal market, Ingenico Group is making, with the acquisition of TechProcess, a major step in India, the fastest growing country in Asia. The combination of our assets places us in a unique position to benefit from India’s shift towards electronic payment transactions and to strengthen our leadership in Indian instore and online payment acceptance,” said Philippe Lazare, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ingenico Group.

Incorporated in 2000, Mumbai-headquartered TechProcess is an online and mobile payment services provider with approximately 600 employees across 40 locations in India. It was originally incubated by ICICI Venture and now has investors such as Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners and W Capital Partners.

TechProcess has developed best-in-class offerings in several markets where it built leading positions, especially in online payments gateway, NACH (National Automated Clearing House), bill payments, and mobile payments.

“Their (Ingenico Group) leading position in payment industry will help us accelerate our development and allow us to lead the offline-online convergence in India,” said Kumar Karpe, CEO of TechProcess.

Apart from Billjunction, TechProcess has also launched a payment wallet Paynimo. In November last year, TechProcess partnered with NumberMall, an app-based payments platform for small merchants, in a deal that will enable 30,000 kirana shops to accept cashless payments.

In India, around 90% of the purchases are done in cash at present. However, electronic payments are expected to increase significantly in the coming years, given the recent government initiatives like launch of national BBPS interoperable bill payments ecosystems and demonetisation of certain bank notes, etc, Ingenico said in the statement.

In September, another payments company PayU Global, the digital payments provider owned by South Africa’s Naspers Group, agreed to acquire rival Citrus Pay for $130 million in an all-cash deal.

PayU India will have more than 30 million customers post the acquisition of Citrus Pay.

The digital payments industry in India will grow 10-fold to touch $500 billion by 2020, according to a June study by Google and Boston Consulting Group.

Entry of several non-banking institutions offering payment services, rising penetration rate for smartphones, consumer readiness to adopt digital payments and progressive changes in the regulatory framework will power the trend, the report said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.