Lakala Payment, a Chinese payments company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext board (300773.SZ), said on October 16, 2026 that it plans to take a controlling stake in Guangzhou Gaofu Information Technology. Gaofu runs Skyee, a platform that collects and sends cross-border payments for online sellers and exporters. Lakala will pay with a mix of new Lakala shares and cash.
Lakala's board approved a preliminary plan for the deal at a meeting on October 16, and the company published it that evening. Lakala has already signed a purchase agreement with five Gaofu shareholders, but the agreement only takes effect if certain conditions are met. Lakala will buy some or all of the shares held by Hainan Tami Investment, Lin Jian, Guangzhou Lingjie Investment, Guangzhou Weizhou Investment and Hainan Weichen Technology.
The price has not been set. Audit and valuation work was not finished when the agreement was signed, and the two sides will agree a price based on an independent appraisal and publish it in a later report. The size of the stake Lakala will end up holding was also not given. The deal is not done: it still needs a second Lakala board vote, approval from Lakala's shareholders, a review by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, registration with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and approval from the People's Bank of China, the central bank.
From minority investor to owner
Lakala is not a new shareholder. It made a strategic investment in Gaofu in 2021, which made Gaofu an associate company. Beijing Business Today, citing the corporate registry service Tianyancha, reported that a Lakala subsidiary, Hainan Yunshang Hulian Technology, became Gaofu's second-largest shareholder in July 2021 with 31.1538%. Lakala's filing does not give that figure.
Lakala first said it was planning the deal on September 30, 2026, when it disclosed letters of intent with the main sellers. Its shares were suspended from trading on October 8 and resumed on October 19, after the plan was published.
The new shares will be issued at RMB12.88 each (about $1.81), which is at least 80% of Lakala's average share price over the 20 trading days before the pricing date. The split between shares and cash has not been agreed. The sellers will make performance commitments and pay compensation if Gaofu misses them, with details to follow the valuation. Lakala said it does not expect the deal to count as a major asset restructuring or a related-party transaction, and no seller is expected to own more than 5% of Lakala afterwards.
What Gaofu built
Gaofu was founded in June 2016 in Guangzhou. Through Skyee, it settles cross-border payments for e-commerce sellers and foreign-trade companies. Its business covers payments and related services for sellers on e-commerce platforms, business-to-business payments for exporters, and salary remittances for foreign workers.
According to Lakala's filing, Gaofu works with nearly 100 banks and payment institutions and can send payments to 175 countries and regions. It operates under money service licences or registrations in Hong Kong, the United States and Singapore, and is supervised in China by the central bank and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The Skyee website says it has more than 240,000 users. Beijing Business Today reported that Skyee has offices in the US, UK, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Gaofu is profitable. National Business Daily, reporting figures from the full plan, said it had revenue of RMB126 million (about $17.7 million) and net profit of RMB34.26 million (about $4.8 million) in 2024, and revenue of RMB198 million (about $27.9 million) with net profit of RMB46.46 million (about $6.5 million) in 2025. In the first nine months of 2026 it reported revenue of RMB172 million (about $24.2 million) and net profit of RMB69.66 million (about $9.8 million). These figures are unaudited. The paper said Gaofu's transaction volume had grown by more than 30% a year over the past three years. Its headcount and founders were not named in the sources reviewed.
Why Lakala wants control
Lakala describes itself as a leading third-party payment company, handling online and offline consumer payments, business payments, cross-border transactions and foreign card payments. It said owning Gaofu would strengthen its payments network and international reach and significantly increase the size and profit of its cross-border business. It pointed to Chinese companies expanding abroad, consolidation in the domestic payments industry and government policies since 2024 that encourage listed companies to make acquisitions.
Cross-border payments are already a growing part of Lakala's business. In the first half of 2026 it processed RMB54.36 billion (about $7.7 billion) in cross-border payments, up 46.38%, and had more than 250,000 active cross-border merchants, according to Beijing Business Today. Group revenue for the half was RMB3.26 billion (about $459 million). Net profit attributable to shareholders rose to RMB669 million, helped by gains from selling listed shares; excluding one-off items it was RMB219 million (about $31 million).
The risks analysts see
Analysts quoted by Beijing Business Today were divided. Wang Pengbo of Boton Consulting said Lakala's cross-border business had trailed rivals and that a minority stake was not enough for close integration, but he warned the boost to earnings might be limited and that Skyee could make decisions more slowly inside a larger group. Tian Lihui, a finance professor at Nankai University, said control would make cross-border payments a core part of Lakala's consolidated business, while pointing to integration costs, compliance and staff retention as risks.
Lakala's own filing warns that it may have to write down goodwill if Gaofu underperforms. The newspaper also noted that the deal is unlikely to change the position of the market leaders in Chinese cross-border payments, such as Lianlian and Ant Group.
