Global retail giant Walmart is inching close to sealing the deal to buy a majority stake in Flipkart for as much as US $12 billion, even though rival Amazon is still jostling to turn the deal in its favour.
According to a PTI report: Sources said all major investors in Flipkart, including SoftBank of Japan, are more or less on board with Walmart’s purchase and the deal could be announced in the coming days.
Walmart is likely to buy stakes of multiple Flipkart investors, including that of Tiger Global Management and Softbank to end up with at least 60 percent holding, they said.
The deal with Walmart, involving primary and secondary shares, is expected to value Flipkart at about US $20 billion, they added.
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One of the persons said possible scrutiny from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well as risks related to sharing competitive data as part of due diligence were some of the reasons for Flipkart investors and management favouring a deal with Walmart and not Amazon, even though the rival’s bid was slightly higher.
Amazon is believed to have offered Flipkart a higher valuation of about US $22 billion, along with a break up fee of US $2 billion, compared to Walmart’s US $18-20 billion valuation of the Bengaluru-based company.
Emails sent to Flipkart and Walmart by PTI did not elicit any response.
“We do not comment on ongoing discussions and/or speculation”, SoftBank said in an emailed statement.
Flipkart’s major investors — Tiger Global Management, Accel and Naspers are expected to sell all their shares to the Arkansas-based retailer.
India is a critical market for both Walmart and Amazon and a deal with Flipkart would help either player in consolidating their position in the booming e-commerce market here.
According to Greyhound Research Chief Analyst and CEO Sanchit Vir Gogia, Walmart adding Flipkart to its kitty will act like a shot-in-the-arm and give it a significant up against ace competition, Amazon.
“Flipkart shareholders also stand to gain a better outcome on their returns (as part of deal with Walmart) and the founders and key management get a bigger stake in the game given higher reliance on them to successfully run and grow the commerce business,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
Last year, SoftBank Vision Fund had pumped in an estimated USD 2.5 billion in Flipkart for about 20 per cent stake in the company. The Bengaluru-based firm had also raised funds from eBay, Tencent Holdings and Microsoft Corp last year.
If the deal with Walmart goes through, it would provide Flipkart with more arsenal to go up against Amazon in the Indian market.
Amazon and Flipkart are locked in an intense battle for leadership in the Indian market and have pumped in billions of dollars towards marketing and setting up infrastructure in the country.
Amazon, on its own, has committed investments to the tune of US $5 billion for its operations in India. In a recent investor call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky had said the company will continue to invest in India as it sees “great progress” with both sellers and customers here, even though as the US e-tailing giant had registered a loss of US $622 million from international operations in the first quarter of 2018.
US-based fund house Valic, which holds around 4,502 shares in Flipkart, and Vanguard World Fund, which has four lakh shares, have pegged the valuation of the e-commerce company between US $15 billion and US $19 billion. Flipkart was last valued at about US $12.5 billion when it raised US $2.5 billion from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank last year.
