Slice gets CCI's nod to merge with North East Small Finance Bank

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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the merger of fintech firm Slice with Guwahati-based North East Small Finance Bank (NESFB).

The banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had previously  given the no-objection certificate (NOC) to the deal in October last year, for the merger which will see the Tiger Global and Insight Partners-backed fintech unicorn becoming an Small Finance Bank (SFB), a first of its kind development in the fintech and banking space.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, CCI further gave its go ahead to the deal between Garagepreneurs Internet Private Limited (GIPL), which runs the brand Slice, and its subsidiaries-- Quadrillion Finance Private Limited (QFPL), an NBFC, and Intergalactory Foundry Private Limited (IFPL) with the bank.

The proposed transaction includes the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Guwahati-headquartered bank--RGVN (North-East) Microfinance Limited.

A detailed order of the commission will be issued soon.

Recently, NESFB onboarded banking veteran Satish Kumar Kalra as its interim managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), to spearhead the merger while optimising bank operations and ensuring a seamless cultural integration of the two entities.

Bengaluru-based Slice largely works with college students and new-to-job employees, offering them credit and payment services. Meanwhile, NESFB has 208 branches across the seven North East states along with West Bengal and has largely focussed on customers from the rural areas and bottom of the pyramid segment.

While announcing the merger in October last year, Slice had said that the deal will help realise the merged entity’s shared goal of integrating technology with grassroots financial inclusion across the nation.

Largely, the merger will allow the company to raise deposits from public, thus reducing its cost of funds for lending, giving it an advantage over other fintechs in the lending space.

Post the merger, the newly-formed SFB Slice will migrate its current prepaid accounts into full service banking accounts.

For FY23, the company reported a 3X jump in its operating revenue at Rs 847 crore, of which Rs 472 crore came from interest from loans disbursed by the fintech through its NBFC subsidiary, and Rs 375 crore from fees and commissions. However, the losses shot by by 60 percent to Rs 406 crore in the same period.

In the most recent development, the startup launched a UPI first prepaid account for its users, besides securing the final authorisation from the RBI for its Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licence.

(This is a developing story and will be updated shortly)