France-based payment-service provider Aros Worldline plans to acquire India-based payment-services provider Venture Infotek Pvt. Ltd. for US$100 million. The acquisition would represent India’s largest-ever deal in the payments space, reports local newspaper Economic Times.
Last year, First Data Corp. acquired Mumbai-based ICICI Bank Ltd.’s network of credit card terminals and the bank’s back-office processing division for $90 million (
Atos Worldline provides electronic payment services, including card processing and merchant acquiring. In 2009, the company generated 844 million euros in revenue.
The promoters of Venture Infotek, Dhruv and Piyush Khaitan, reportedly decided to exit the company on the premise that the business would consume significant capital in coming years. As part of its deal, Atos also will acquire shares from private equity firm Kubera Partners Pvt. Ltd., which bought a 40% stake in Venture Infotek in 2007, according to the newspaper.
Venture Infotek provides card-processing services for banks that issue credit cards and merchant acquirers, though Mumbai-based Axis Bank owns most of the terminals Venture Infotek supports. The company, which also manages petroleum credit cards for state-owned oil companies and supports the billing and card-issuance programs of various banks, processes about 150 million card transactions annually worth 350 billion rupees (US$7.5 billion or 6.2 billion euros). It also issues more than 50 million payment and loyalty cards.
Venture Infotek did not respond to comments by deadline, and officials at Atos were unreachable.
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