Naspers said to eye fintech deals in $1 bn India push

JOHANNESBURG: Naspers Ltd wants to spend about $1 billion in India this year as it scours the globe for investments that can replicate its blockbuster bet on China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd, a person familiar with the matter said.

Africa’s largest company by market value is in talks to inject about $200 million into business loan provider Capital Float and payments security firm Wimbo as a first step, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private.

A Naspers representative declined to comment.

Cape Town-based investment group Naspers is the largest shareholder in gaming and social media giant Tencent and has around $9 billion in cash after trimming its stake last year and selling Indian e-commerce startup Flipkart to Wal- mart Inc.

Surging smartphone adoption has led to explosive growth in fintech and e-commerce in India and a host of local startups are vying with US giants Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. for a slice of the action.

Some of Naspers’ biggest I nd i a n i nve s t ments ha v e focused on food delivery.

It took some of the proceeds from selling down its Tencent holding to lead a $1 billion funding round for Bangalore-based online food company Swiggy in December.

Part of this year’s $1 billion Indian investment drive could see Naspers increase its presence in food delivery, one of the people said.

Naspers shares have gained 13% this year, valuing the company at 1.4 trillion rand ($97 billion). The group spun off Africa pay-tv provider Multichoice Group Ltd. last month to focus on its internet and technology investments.