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Netherland-based investment major Prosus saw its India revenue (from payment arm PayU India) grow by 15% to $211 million in the first half of FY24, driven by growth from payment merchants, payech unit Wibmo, and omnichannel business.

India is Prosus’s largest market in the core Payment Service Provider (PSP) business, contributing around 48% of revenues, after GPO (Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America), Iyzico (Turkey), and Red Dot Payments (Southeast Asia).

In August, PayU agreed to sell its GPO business to Rapyd, a fintech-as-a-service provider, for $610 million. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2024. 

The investment major said, “The payments and fintech business segment grew consolidated revenue by 21% to $497 million, driven by India payments, India credit, and business from Turkey.” 

The total payment volume (TPV) grew 18% to $55 billion, driven by India (16%) and GPO, including Turkey and Red Dot Payments (21%). 

“The payment and fintech segment operates profitable core PSP businesses and a rapidly scaling credit business in India. It delivered a strong H124 results in the core PSP and credit business, with revenue growth and improved profitability, despite pending regulatory approvals in India that is also impacting peer PSPs,” it said. 

It added that the regulatory approvals relate to onboarding new online merchants, “while we continue to provide payment services to its existing online merchants”. “We are working closely with the relevant authorities and expect resolution soon,” it said. 

PayU was among several fintechs whose payment aggregator application was rejected by the RBI, which propelled it to pause new merchant onboarding. 

Credit business 

For PayU, the credit business in India grew its revenue by 23% to $43 million despite regulatory headwinds. India Credit has a loan book of $338 million at the end of September 2023 after issuing $362 million in credit during the first half of FY24.  

Also, Prosus revealed in its statement that it has shut down LazyCard, its Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) platform, in India.

“The consolidated trading loss of Prosus’ narrowed by $62 million due to improved profitability in GPO, Turkey and also from the savings from the closure of India’s LazyCard business,” it said. 

IPO plans

During the post-earning call, Ervin Tu, interim CEO of Prosus, said the global investment firm is hopeful of a public listing for PayU India by the second half of next year. 

“We are growing very well not only on payments but on the credit side too. We are working very hard to prepare the business to be in a listable form and aim to have it (ready) by the second half of next year,” Tu said, adding that public markets in India are very healthy.

Recently, PayU India CEO Anirban Mukherjee was elevated as the CEO of the global business, following the exit of CEO Laurent Le Moal. In his new role, Mukherjee will join the Prosus leadership team and report directly to Ervin Tu. He will be responsible for the overall business operations of PayU.