Axis Bank to acquire FreeCharge; shares rise

Shares of Axis Bank advanced as much as 1.16 per cent on Thursday at around 2pm after the lender entered into a share purchase agreement with Snapdeal to acquire 100 per cent equity capital of Accelyst Solution and FreeCharge Payment Technologies for a cash consideration of Rs 385 crore.

However, the stock shed the early gains and ended the day 0.78 per cent down at Rs 524.70. Shares of Axis Bank opened at Rs 531.20 and touched a high and low of Rs 535 and Rs 521.80, respectively.

FreeCharge was incorporated on January 19, 2015.

According to a report by PTI, the acquisition of FreeCharge business would give Axis Bank access to about 52 million mobile wallet holders of FreeCharge as well as about 150 to 200 professionals.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2017, Axis Bank reported 16 per cent YoY fall in net profit at Rs 1305.60 crore against Rs 1555.53 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

On the BSE, 4.03 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 5.35 lakh shares in the past two weeks.

Shares of the company had hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 638 on September 7, 2016 and 52-week low of Rs 424.60 on January 10, 2017.