One97 Communications Ltd., which owns digital payments firm Paytm, said its share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of Raheja QBE General Insurance Company Ltd. has been terminated as its transaction could not be completed within the agreed time period.
Paytm reiterated its intention to enter the general insurance sector, as it is extremely bullish about its potential. Paytm, in a regulatory filing, said it remains bullish on its roadmap for general insurance, “and we intend to seek requisite approvals for a new general insurance licence, wherein we hold a 74 per cent majority shareholding upfront.”
The deal was announced in July 2020. Raheja group company Prism Johnson Ltd had then said, in a stock-exchange filing, that it will sell its stake in the insurer to QorQl Pvt. Ltd, a technology company majority-owned by Sharma and Paytm, for ₹289.68 crore ($38.8 million). In 2020, Paytm gave up its corporate agency licence in exchange for a brokerage licence to enter the insurance sector.
Raheja QBE was set up in 2007. In 2015, QBE Group raised its stake in Raheja QBE to 49% from 26% for ₹102.9 crore ($15.8 million then). The Mumbai-based company provides personal insurance, business insurance and family insurance services. In May last year, the company said it had appointed Liberty General Insurance’s Pankaj Arora as chief executive and managing director.
Paytm also shared its business operating numbers for April. Paytm’s lending business now has an annualized run rate of ₹20,000 crore. In April, the company disbursed 2.6 million loans through its platform worth ₹1,657 crore, or about $221 million.
It also recorded over 100% year-on-year growth in total merchant payments volume, aggregating to ₹0.95 lakh crore ($12.7 billion). Paytm’s monthly transacting users stood at 73.5 million. In the offline payments segment, the company’s total device deployment across India has crossed 3 million, Paytm said in a separate filing.
Shares of One97 Communications rose 3% in opening deals on Monday.
