Infibeam to sell subsidiary to B2B marketplace Tradohub

Infibeam Avenues Ltd has agreed to sell its wholly owned subsidiary Infinium (India) Ltd to Ingenius E-commerce Pvt. Ltd, which operates business-to-business (B2B) industrial goods aggregation platform Tradohub.

Mumbai-listed Infibeam said in a stock-exchange filing that it has divested its ownership with control in Infinium India to lngenius in a deal worth Rs 60 crore (around $8.5 million at current exchange rates).

Infinium (India) Ltd claims to provide customised turnkey systems, solutions and services in the field of broadband satellite communications. Its solutions and services also include VSATs ((Very Small Aperture Terminals) used for voice, video, data, internet and broadcast services working in fixed, transportable, mobile and rural environments.

According to Infibeam, Infinium accounts for 10.51% of the parent’s consolidated turnover and 0.31% of its consolidated net worth.

Ahmedabad-based Ingenius was founded by Akash Domadiya and Harsh Patel in 2014. It runs Tradohub, an online B2B marketplace for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a focus on appliances, industrial equipment and raw materials.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

The decision to sell Infinium comes a month after Infibeam agreed to sell 5% stake of its wholly owned unit NSI Infinium Global Pvt. Ltd to Suvidhaa Infoserve Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based fintech company that counts billionaire Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry as an angel investor. NSI Infinium operated the company’s online marketplace Infibeam.com.

Three months earlier, the unit had come under public scrutiny when WhatsApp rumours that Infibeam had given interest-free and unsecured loans to NSI Infinium, which had negative net assets, dragged the parent company’s stock down 70%.

Shares of Infibeam were trading at Rs 44.95 apiece on the BSE as of 1pm on Monday, a tad higher than the previous close. The company now has a market value of Rs 2,945 crore ($428 million), far lower than the $1 billion valuation it commanded until a few months ago.

In December, Infibeam terminated a deal to acquire Unicommerce eSolutions Pvt. Ltd from SoftBank-backed online retailer Snapdeal.

The deal was scrapped as the conditions set were not fulfilled in the stipulated period.

Infibeam started off primarily as an e-commerce firm, but pivoted its business model subsequently. Its core e-commerce solution BuildaBazaar and payment solutions business CCAvenue together accounted for nearly 98% of revenue for 2017-18 while the marketplace made up the remaining.

For the second quarter of 2018-19, the company posted a significant rise in operating revenue, thanks to growth in its web services business. Operating revenue jumped 83% to Rs 134.82 crore for the quarter ended September 2018 from Rs 73.74 crore a year earlier.

Total expenses nearly doubled to Rs 137.46 crore during the period, with payment gateway processing charges accounting for nearly 80% of the costs.

Net loss stood at Rs 4.5 crore for the second quarter of 2018-19. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1.05 crore for the year-ago period.