Prosus slashes India's Byju's valuation to $5 billion

BENGALURU, June 27 (Reuters) - Dutch-listed technology investor Prosus NV (PRX.AS) has slashed the valuation of troubled Indian edtech startup Byjus to $5.1 billion according to its annual report, a fall of more than 75% from the startups $22 billion valuation last year.

Prosus cut the value of its 9.6% stake in Byjus to around $493 million in the financial year ended March 31, the report added, days after it stepped down from Byjus board along with other investors. Prosus is the companys biggest investor shareholder.

Byjus, once Indias most valuable startup, counts investors such as General Atlantic and BlackRock among its backers, but has seen its auditor Deloitte and three investor board members resign in recent days. Deloitte said it was unable to audit the company because it did not receive financial statements for 2021-22.

It is also battling a U.S lawsuit over a $1.2 billion loan, which came weeks after raids over suspected violations of foreign exchange laws.

Byjus told investors it will file 2022 audited earnings by September and 2023 results by December, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year, Blackrock, too, had cut Byjus valuation to $8.3 billion.

Indias Employee Provident Fund Organisation on Tuesday observed a shortfall in payments from Byjus, Reuters reported. Byjus deposited 1.23 billion rupees ($15.01 million) after the EPFO asked it to.

(This story has been refiled to fix the company name to BlackRock from Blackrock in paragraph 3)