E-tailer Infibeam buys UAE-based digital payments firm

Infibeam Incorporation Ltd, the parent of the country’s only listed e-commerce company, has acquired 100% stake in Vavian International, a digital payments processing company which has operations in the Middle East.

The deal was valued at around AED 4.32 million (Rs 8 crore or $1.17 million).

Ahmedabad-based Infibeam said in a statement that the acquisition will be completed in the next two to four weeks.
The deal will see Dubai-based Vavian International Ltd will become a direct subsidiary of Infibeam Global EMEA FZ-LLC, a subsidiary of Infibeam Incorporation Ltd.

Vavian claims to process 2,500 transactions daily with a transaction value of AED 2 million and monthly gross income of AED 0.6 million.

According to Infibeam's statement, the acquisition is expected to “have multi-fold opportunities including higher transaction processing volume to grow its online digital payments, prospect for new business as well as other related businesses and value addition opportunities with access to fast growing Middle East market.”

The deal marks Infibeam's second acquisition this month. Earlier, it had announced the acquisition of Unicommerce, the technology solutions arm of fellow e-tailer Snapdeal.

Infibeam had acquired Indian payments solutions platform CCAvenue last year for around Rs 2,000 crore.

Apart from horizontal e-commerce platform Infibeam, Infibeam Incorporation is also the parent of e-commerce enabler BuildaBazaar.

Founded in 2010 by former Amazon executive Vishal Mehta, Infibeam was one of the youngest companies to list on the National Stock Exchange when it floated its initial public offering in March 2016.

In February, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled TV18 Broadcast Ltd announced that it would invest up to Rs 40 crore ($6.23 million) in Infibeam. The transaction appeared to be an ad-for-equity-style investment.

Infibeam posted a net profit of Rs 30.8 crore on consolidated total income of Rs 214.94 crore for the quarter ended December 2017.