Amazon India’s payment arm Amazon Pay gets Rs 700 crore from Singapore parent

Days after capital infusion into Amazon India’s marketplace Amazon Seller Services, the Singapore-based parent Amazon Corporate Holdings Private Limited and Amazon.com Inc Limited based in Mauritius have now put Rs 700 crore into its digital payment vertical Amazon Pay, according to financial data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler. 70,01,00,000 (70 crores 1 lakh) equity shares of Rs 10 each aggregating to Rs 700,10,00,000 (Rs 700 crore 10 lakh) have been allotted to existing shareholders, with a significant share going to Amazon Singapore, as per the regulatory filing.

This year, the parent company had put Rs 2,310 crore and Rs 1,125 crore in July and September respectively into the marketplace arm while Amazon Seller Services and Amazon Data Services had secured Rs 2,500 crore in February. The payments and wholesale business of Amazon in India had received Rs 1,700 crore in January this year. Amazon has been flushing the India business with cash ahead of its month-long festive sale Great Indian Festival beginning October 17 that usually has been around a five-six-day event in the past. The company had also made several announcements around sellers and workforce to cater to the expected surge in consumer demand this festive season. On the other hand, its arch-rival Flipkart will be hosting its Big Billion Days sale between October 16-21.

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Meanwhile, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had earlier this week appealed in the Supreme Court against an interim stay order by the Karnataka High Court in February with respect to its probe into the alleged anticompetitive business practices by Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, Financial Express had reported. The appeal was filed by the CCI on September 21. The hearing may happen this week, a member affiliated to the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM) had told Financial Express. On the other hand, expecting the move by the CCI, Amazon has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court, the member had said.

“The appeal by CCI is one of the most logical and most awaited steps to nail both Amazon & Flipkart for continuing their respective malpractices including predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss finding, exclusive arrangements with brands and holding inventory,” Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary-General, CAIT had said while demanding the government to ban the festive sales of the two companies.