Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Capital A is reportedly looking to sell BigPay, its fintech arm to an undisclosed regional bank, according to Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes.
“It’s a good product, it just hasn’t had enough capital. So we’ve decided to sell the majority of Big Pay to a very big regional bank — we’re in negotiations. It’s not just the regional bank, there are some big regional fintech players and global players that are looking at it,” according to Fernandes during an exclusive webinar earlier this week hosted by Rakuten Trade.
It is worth noting that Fernandes already laid out plans for BigPay in a previous interview with The Edge Malaysia, where he said that they were seeking a partner to take a stake in and lead BigPay amidst ‘tough’ management issues.
“Really, we need a partner [for Big Pay]. We’ve built a great programme. We’re going to be looking for a major partner to take this [forward]. We want to keep a stake in it, but it’s not something we are going to drive going forward,” he stated.
It was previously reported that BigPay saw a mass exodus of C-suite leaders earlier this year, including chief executive officer Zubin Rada Krishnan, chief operating officer Mitherpal Sidhu, chief growth and commercial officer Chris Manguera, and chief of staff and head of strategy Meirisha Berisdha.
In its financial report for the third quarter of 2024, Capital A highlighted that BigPay generated RM8.7 million in revenue. Additionally, its EBITDA loss decreased by 2% year-over-year to RM21.7 million, primarily due to reductions in staff costs. The report also noted that the recent introduction of BigPay Lite contributed significantly to user growth, with 44% of new users in Q3 2024 joining through this channel.
