PayPal Holdings Inc. will enter the Chinese payments market as the People's Bank of China approved its application to acquire a 70% stake in Guofubao Information Technology Co. Ltd., which runs the digital payments platform GoPay.
Guofubao provides various services such as internet payment and mobile phone payments, cross-border renminbi payments, business fund payments, and prepaid card issuance and acceptance. The acquisition will be made through PayPal unit Yinbaobao Information Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s AliPay and Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s WeChat Pay lead China's payments market.
Chinese authorities said earlier this year that they would allow more foreign investments in the country's financial sector, which includes removing foreign ownership limits on securities, insurance and fund management firms in 2020, a year earlier than planned.
