Infibeam Avenues Ltd has struck a partnership with Dubai-based UniPropitia Group to expand its web services solutions in the Arab League countries.
In a press note, the listed e-commerce operator Infibeam and parent of payment gateway company CCAvenue said that UniPropitia will acquire a 51% stake in Infibeam’s UAE-based wholly-owned subsidiary, Infibeam Global EMEA FZ-LLC, for not more than $25 million.
UniPropitia-FZCO is an investment firm headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. The company claims to have made investments in several technology companies with a focus on large scale technology implementation for institutions and government in the Middle East region.
This is not Infibeam’s first deal in the Middle East.
Last May, it acquired a 100% stake in Vavian International, a digital payments processing company operating in the region, for $1.17 million then (Rs 8 crore). The deal made Vavian a direct subsidiary of Infibeam Global EMEA FZ-LLC.
On Monday, Infibeam bought a 100% stake in Vavian from Infibeam Global EMEA FZ-LLC, thus making the payments firm its wholly-owned subsidiary, it said in a stock-exchange disclosure.
By expanding into the UAE, Infibeam can leverage its web services solutions to open up more monetisation avenues. Web services currently account for nearly 98% of the company’s revenues since 2017-18 while its e-commerce site accounts for the rest. The web services operations include its core e-commerce solution Buildabazaar and payment solutions business CCAvenue.
Founded in 2010 by former Amazon executive Vishal Mehta, Infibeam started off primarily as an e-commerce firm, but pivoted its business model subsequently. In March 2016, it became one of the youngest firms to list on the bourses after floating its initial public offering.
The listed company posted a significant rise in operating revenues in the second quarter of the financial year 2018-19 thanks to the growth of its web services business.
Its operating revenues rose to Rs 134.82 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2018. This represents an 83% increase over its operating revenues of Rs 73.74 crore during the same quarter in the previous financial year. Total income came in at Rs 138.2 crore.
Net losses stood at Rs 4.5 crore in the second quarter of 2018-19. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1.05 crore in the year-ago period.
In January this year, Infibeam 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.
In December last, it agreed to sell a wholly-owned unit that operates its online marketplace to Suvidhaa Infoserve Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based fintech company that counts billionaire Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry as an angel investor.
