 "Sudhir Valia to take 51% stake in Pay Point India")
The deal will help Pay Point India to meet the requirement of Rs 100 crore paid-up equity capital as stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India for applying for payments bank license. “Pay Point India has already a widespread presence across the country and the payments bank licence will help them to turn as a full-fledged financial player. As a business correspondent to State Bank of India, Pay Point India helped to open 550,000 accounts across the country,” Valia said. He refused to disclose the investment size. Brother-in-law of Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi, he had a 26 per cent stake in Telewings, the India arm of Norwegian telecom firm Telenor, bought back by Telenor last year.
Valia acquired stake through his investment arm, Lakshdeep Investments.
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Pay Point India was founded by chartered accountants Ketan Doshi and Pradip C Mehta, by Mahendra Vichare, founder & managing director of Vichare Couriers, and Sajit Suvarna, partner at DSK Legal.
It has been authorised by Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation as a principal agent to appoint agents for the latter across India. It has tied up with BSNL, MTNL, BMC, BEST, Tata, Reliance and Mahanagar Gas for bill payments and recharge.
A clutch of prepaid payment instruments - Itz Cash, Oxigen Services, Mobikwik & Paytm; corporate leaders - Kishore Biyani, Dilip Shanghvi, former Infosys finance head V Balakrishnan, & George Muthoot; top business houses such as Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Group, Bharti Airtel and Mahindra & Mahindra, and a government department, India Post, have applied for payments bank licences.