Bill Junction To Rope In Third Investor This Year

Bill Junction Payments, a 95 per cent subsidiary of ICICI Venture, is looking at roping in an additional strategic investor into the company within the current fiscal.

Currently, the company consists of two main shareholders, with Rediff.com holding the balance 5 per cent.

Bill Junction Payments was started as a division of ICICI in September 2000. It was then spun off into a separate company with ICICI Venture holding the total equity. Rediff.com was inducted as a strategic partner subsequently.

Bikramjit Sen, chief operating officer, Bill Junction Payments, said: "We are looking at inducting a strategic partner into the company within the next one year. While the amount of investment we would be looking at would be in the region of around Rs 10 crore, the objective of the induction would be more to add strategic value."

 

"However we are still undecided whether the induction would be by a divestment of our stake or by issue of fresh equity," he added.

The equity capital of Bill Junctions currently stands at Rs 11.75 crore.

The company is an electronic bill presentation and payment service provider in India. It has a user base of over 1 lakh spanning the country.

According to Sen, the company expects to break even in fiscal 2002-03 and is looking at taking up other initiatives in the payment space.

"We are currently focussed only on payments but down the line, we would be getting into activities which capture other flows of money in the payments space. We would look for opportunities which enhance the value of activities which we are already in," he added.