Mumbai : Ecommerce company Askme and its principal investor – Astro holdings; have reached to an agreement on the exit of Malaysian company – Astro holdings. The majority shareholder – Astro Holdings, has given a written commitment to the ecommerce company that it is committed to pay outstanding dues till 31st July, 2016.
Recently, there was some disappointment among sellers and customers who failed to receive their payment and refund respectively, on time. Initially, there were problems in payments from Astro but now it is sorted. Commenting on this delay, AskMe Group, minority shareholder, Ankit Jain said, “While we were facing issues in the month of June, the same have been sorted out and Astro is paying the dues.” So, the payment issues will be streamlined soon.
Commenting about the exit of Astro holdings, Jain added, “We hope to see smooth transition of the Management Buy Out (MBO), which is settled with cut-off date of 31st July with a backer.”
According to Askme, Astro Holdings is exiting all major investments (AskMe included) in India because of its legal and political issues in the country. In August 2014, the Malaysian owner of Astro Holdings – Ananda Krishnan was named in the chargesheet filed by CBI on Aircel/Maxis case. However, Astro holdings maintained in its statement to ET that the reason it is exiting the ecommerce company has lot to do with the lack of AskMe not being able to meet its plans due to lack of scale, among other factors.
Commenting about the growth trajectory of Askme, Jain said, “AskMe has been growing multifold over the years. We have clocked an 8x growth in the last one year.”
AskMe Group which operates AskMeBazaar, AskMePay and AskMeFin, is still going strong with launching new categories as the investor battle continues.
Recently, AskMeBazaar had launched the Gourmet category that offers products like pasta, sauces and dressings, vinegar, olives and so on in Delhi-NCR region. The group is now replicating the same across other cities and will be launching soon in all 35+ cities it is present in.