ICICI Bank Ltd. has completed the sale of its entire 19% stake in ICICI Merchant Services Pvt., according to an exchange filing on Thursday.
The bank executed a share purchase agreement with First Data Holding I (Netherlands) B.V. and First Data (India) Pvt. as well as Fiserv Merchant Solutions Pvt., to whom the stake was sold.
With this transaction, ICICI Bank will not hold any shares in ICICI Merchant Services, which is no longer an associate of the bank.
"In accordance with the SPA, the bank has completed all the procedures and sold its entire shareholding of 19% in equity shares of IMSPL to the buyers and, consequently, IMSPL has ceased to be an associate of the Bank effective today," it said.
IMSPL primarily functioned as a merchant acquirer, providing the necessary infrastructure and services for businesses across India to accept various kinds of digital payments.
Their services covered a wide range of point-of-sale terminals, according to various business needs, alongside payment gateway services for online transactions, supporting credit and debit cards, UPI, and other popular methods.
Beyond payment processing, they offered value-added services such as Cash@POS, Buy Now Pay Later options, and merchant portals for transaction tracking and business insights.
Shares of ICICI Bank closed 3.73% higher at Rs 1,406.70 apiece on the NSE, compared to a 1.77% rise in the benchmark Nifty. The share price has risen 33.28% in the last 12 months and 9.76% on a year-to-date basis.
Forty-nine out of the 52 analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock and three suggest 'hold', according to Bloomberg. The stock's return potential was at 8%.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
