NEOPAY has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments, a transaction that would combine its merchant acquiring business with the online payments operations of regional e-commerce group noon. The announcement identifies the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as the markets served by the proposed combination.
The transaction would bring together different parts of the payment process. NEOPAY supplies acquiring infrastructure and services that help merchants accept payments across channels. noon payments contributes an e-commerce gateway, embedded payment capabilities and relationships with marketplace sellers and other online businesses.
Merchant Services Shape the Proposed Combination
The planned business would offer online payment acceptance alongside in-store acquiring, with settlement services, analytics and additional financial products. NEOPAY says its objective is to support merchants across both physical and digital sales channels.
Vibhor Mundhada, NEOPAY’s chief executive, said: “By bringing together NEOPAY’s acquiring and omnichannel capabilities with noon payments’ strength in digital commerce, we have an opportunity to create something differentiated — a truly regional payments platform that can serve merchants seamlessly across channels and markets. The Transaction will deepen our presence in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, reinforce our leadership in the UAE, and accelerate our ability to deliver simple, intelligent and locally relevant payment experiences for merchants across MENA.”
Access to noon payments’ merchant relationships would also widen the range of payment flows handled by the buyer. The acquisition announcement links those relationships to plans for additional payment methods and installment options.
Other priorities include merchant onboarding, payment performance and financial services embedded into business platforms. Cross-border payments and settlement are also on the proposed roadmap. The companies have described these as areas for development, without publishing quantified targets for processing speed, cost reductions or merchant adoption.
Faraz Khalid, noon’s chief executive, emphasized the practical requirements of payment services rather than the transaction’s financial terms. “Payments should be simple, reliable, and built for the markets they serve. NEOPAY brings deep local expertise and strong infrastructure. Together, we can help merchants grow and make paying easier for millions of customers across the region,” he said.
An Existing Payments Partnership
The two businesses already have experience working together. On October 27, 2025, noon payments announced an Aani instant-payment pilot with NEOPAY for UAE merchants. That collaboration preceded the acquisition agreement by almost a year and focused on payment collection rather than a change in ownership.
Under the pilot’s announced design, customers could authorize payments through their banking application or the Aani app. Merchants could collect payments using a customer’s mobile number, email address or a QR code. noon payments said the arrangement supported near-real-time merchant settlement, although the release did not provide independently measured results from the pilot.
Aani is operated by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE. Launched on October 16, 2023, the platform supports instant payments around the clock. The NEOPAY–noon payments pilot built on this existing national payment infrastructure.
noon payments has also been adding domestic card acceptance. A September 9, 2026 announcement described its collaboration with Mastercard to enable online Jaywan transactions through Mastercard Gateway. Together, the Aani and Jaywan arrangements provide examples of the local payment connections already associated with the business NEOPAY proposes to acquire.
NEOPAY’s own shareholder structure changed before this acquisition proposal. In 2024, Mashreq announced that Arcapita and DgPays had agreed to acquire a majority stake in the payments company, with the bank retaining a significant minority interest. The original announcement put NEOPAY’s approximate enterprise value at $385 million.
Mashreq confirmed completion on January 6, 2025. At that time, the bank identified expansion into new markets and broader services as objectives for NEOPAY under the new partnership. The proposed noon payments purchase gives a specific acquisition route to the regional expansion discussed during that ownership change.
