Axis Bank likely to buy Snapdeal owned Freecharge for about Rs 400 cr: Sources

The shareholders of Jaspers Infotech Private Limited on Wednesday agreed to sell its subsidiary Freecharge to public lender Axis Bank in an all cash deal which can range between Rs 380-400 crore, according to two people privy to the development.

The signing is expected to happen on Thursday. The deal will give some breather to Gurgaon based Snapdeal which is running low on cash even as it has trimmed its staff considerably, this year.

The Axis-Freecharge deal size is phenomenally lower from the USD 400 million for which Snapdeal had paid to acquired the payments firm in 2015.

Freecharge had raised close to USD 116 million before it got acquired by Snapdeal.

The deal will provide some cash flow for Snapdeal which is still in talks with rival Flipkart to conclude an all stock sale. The Freecharge deal may change the contours of the Flipkart-Snapdeal sale.

While the company’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have been pushing for alternative paths – either going ahead solo with a Plan B or a merger with Infibeam, key stakeholder Softbank wants the merger to happen with Flipkart. There isn’t any final nod on that yet. Snapdeal did not respond to an email query by Moneycontrol on the issue.

(Funding rounds in Freecharge before it's sale to Snapdeal. Source: Tracxn)

Others who were in the fray to acquire the Freecharge included names like Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Times Internet besides larger rival Paytm.

The new entity is likely to absorb the 200-250 odd employees of the Freecharge. The employees were offered retention bonuses in the last couple of months, according to multiple people privy to the development.

Founded in 2010 by Mumbai based entrepreneur Kunal Shah, FreeCharge started as a recharge deal coupons platform before turning into a full-scale mobile wallet.

The company has had multiple suitors in past too including Naspers-backed PayU.

The deal with PayU couldn't be finalised due to lack of consent within the board of Jaspers Infotech, the parent firm of Snapdeal, according to one of the persons quoted above.

priyanka.sahay@nw18.com