Grapevine: PhonePe shelves plan to buy ZestMoney; Viatris' API biz for sale

By Shubhobrota Dev Roy

  • 30 Mar 2023
Credit: 123RF.com

Walmart-owned digital payments company PhonePe has decided to call off the deal to acquire buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform ZestMoney,  

after months of being engaged in discussions, The Economic Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.

“The deal is off; the company boards and investors were made privy to the development over the last few days. PhonePe is not going ahead with the acquisition after months of due diligence,” said a person in the know of the matter. 

Viatris 

 US healthcare company Viatris Inc has put up its India-focussed active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business for sale as part of reorganising its non-core portfolio. This follows the decision to also sell women's healthcare business Famy Care last year, The Economic Times reported, citing people aware of the development. 

The company has been seeking a valuation of $600-700 million (₹5,000 crore) for the API business and hired Jefferies to run the sale process. 

Ares SSG-backed Acre ARC has completed the acquisition of ₹1,500 crore debt of the distressed Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals in what is the largest acquisition by the aggregator this fiscal, The Economic Times reported. 

Acre transferred ₹811 crore to lead lender IDBI Bank a couple of days after Punjab National Bank, the final lender in the seven-bank consortium, approved the transaction earlier this week. 

Acre’s offer of ₹811 crore was just above the ₹810 crore reserve price set by banks. However, it ensures a 54% recovery.