Infibeam Avenues (a renowned fintech and digital payments company) is selling one of its businesses (a part that handles ecommerce platform technology) to Rediff.com. Today (8 August), Infibeam Avenues Limited’s Board of Directors signed a Business Transfer Agreement (BTA) with Rediff.com India Limited. Unlike selling the tech in bits and pieces, Infibeam is taking the ‘slump sale’ road. Meaning they’ll be selling the tech as a whole. And the deal was closed at ₹800.39 Crores. Now, the agreement is prominent because even after selling the asset, Infibeam still holds a major stake in Rediff. Just like us, are you wondering why? Here’s how.
Deal Value and Structure
The deal amounts to a total of ₹800.39 Crores. Make no mistake, it’s a huge amount, but that’s not what gives Infibeam more power. Interestingly, ₹400 Crores is allocated to cash, and ₹400.39 Crores in Rediff’s shares (that is how Rediff will pay). The deal is a “slump sale,” and Infibeam Avenues will own a whopping 82% of Rediff. This keeps Infibeam in control. It’s so unusual for a company to sell an asset and still hold more power over the buyer long after the deal is closed.
Why Infibeam Sold Transfer E-commerce Platform To Rediff
Transfer E-commerce Platform generated revenue of ₹180.16 Crores last year (2024). Now this number is just 4.83% of Infibeam’s total income. And it’s made up of 18.58% of Infibeam’s total company value. Although the tool was valuable, it didn’t seem to add any great money to Infibeam. Plus, Infibeam wanted to focus more on payments (CCAvenue, which made ₹3,546 Crores in revenue last year) and AI tech (Phronetic.AI).
That’s the reason why Infibeam had to let go of the Transfer E-commerce Platform. Rediff, on the other hand, gave away a great percentage of its shares to own the platform. And that brings us down to one question: why did Rediff invest heavily in this e-commerce tech?
What Will Rediff Get Out of This Deal
When making a deal (risking its shares), Rediff saw a bigger picture of becoming a stronger enterprise software and e-commerce platform. In other words, a high-end one-stop e-commerce solution for small and medium-sized companies. For that, Rediff is building a business suite called RediffOne. It offers better tools for everything, including online storefronts, payments, customer management, and analytics.
Please note that if you hold any shares in Infibeam, there won’t be any changes for you. Check back with us for more updates on the same.
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