NEOPAY to buy 65% of noon payments, approvals pending
NEOPAY has agreed to acquire 65% of noon payments, with regulatory and antitrust approvals still pending. The notices disclose no price for the stake.
Having tracked Gulf merchant acquiring since Mashreq launched NEOPAY as a standalone payments business in 2022, the useful fact is not the stake size. NEOPAY has agreed to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments, and both sides say regulatory and antitrust approvals are still outstanding. A marketplace is handing an acquirer control of checkout without selling the storefront.
The Emirates News Agency notice carried by Zawya says that, on completion, NEOPAY will put its acquiring infrastructure, omnichannel acceptance and merchant services next to noon payments’ embedded payments platform, e-commerce gateway and merchant network across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Egypt. noon payments’ newsroom note, dated October 5, 2026, uses the same condition: completion remains subject to customary conditions, including applicable regulatory and antitrust approvals. Neither text states a price.
Checkout meets the terminal estate
NEOPAY, as that note and Gulf News describe it, runs merchant acquiring, card processing, payment gateways and point-of-sale infrastructure. noon payments calls itself the digital payments arm of the marketplace noon, and says it is “Trusted by thousands of merchants across the UAE, KSA and Egypt”, with online checkout, payment links, in-store acceptance and marketplace payments. Fintechly reported that the price was not disclosed and that neither company has said who will hold the other 35%.
Zawya says the combined offer would cover online payment acceptance, in-store acquiring, faster settlements, data and analytics, and value-added financial services. The noon note adds faster merchant onboarding, payment performance, fraud capabilities, embedded financial services, alternative payment methods and instalment plans, and says the tie-up could strengthen cross-border settlement on regional commerce corridors. No noon payments volume or take rate is given.
Two named voices, and a silence
Vibhor Mundhada, chief executive of NEOPAY, said in the Zawya notice: “This is an important milestone in NEOPAY’s journey. We have built a strong payments business in the UAE, and our ambition is now to take that capability across the region.” Faraz Khalid, chief executive of noon, said: “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.”
Gulf News reported that noon Chairman Mohamed Alabbar oversaw the agreement, and no rival is quoted. Paymob, whose Gulf shift this desk has already reported, is not named, nor is SkipCash, whose tap-to-phone raise is a distribution bet, not a marketplace purchase. Tabby sits on the credit side of Gulf checkout and is not a bidder for this gateway. The competitive response in the notices is silence.
The shop stays with noon
noon is not leaving payments. Gulf News and Startup Scene both say the deal brings the payments business closer to a dedicated infrastructure provider while noon retains the broader e-commerce ecosystem. It is nearer two moves this desk has tracked: an acquirer bolting payouts onto acceptance, and a processor buying the workflow beside the swipe. NEOPAY wants the adjacent job, and the storefront does not change hands.
The buyer can do this because it is no longer a bank department. Mashreq launched NEOPAY in 2022. In 2024 Arcapita and DgPays agreed to buy a majority stake that valued the business at about $385 million. Mashreq kept a significant minority and completed the sale in January 2025.
The bank said the partnership would enable NEOPAY to “scale its operations, enter new markets, and enhance its innovative service offerings across the Middle East”. NEOPAY had processed more than 400 million transactions in 2023 and served more than 10,000 merchants in the UAE. Fintechly reported that the agreement would take NEOPAY into Saudi Arabia and Egypt for the first time.
Nothing moves until the approvals do
Signature does not merge the merchant files. Regulatory and antitrust approvals are still required, and the companies have not named the authorities, a timetable or a price. A later filing that identifies the other 35% and the consideration is what would show a control premium for checkout flows, as against a partnership written up as an acquisition. A refusal, or a remedy that limits how marketplace orders are routed, would leave NEOPAY with the UAE acquiring book it already runs.
For bank product teams and other Gulf acquirers, the shape is the story: NEOPAY is not, on these notices, raising growth equity or licensing its way into Riyadh one merchant at a time. It is trying to buy density a marketplace has already gathered, while noon keeps the shop. That holds only if antitrust review treats a 65% gateway stake as compatible with open checkout, and if the unnamed minority does not block the integration Mundhada described. Approvals are still pending, which leaves the regional platform a statement rather than a network.
Reporting by Rick Steves. Filed 8 October 2026, 11:44 GMT.
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011.
