Walmart is keen to bring in strategic investors for the Indian company, but is also open to selling to large pure-play investment firms. The retailer is yet to formally mandate investment bankers to look for strategic partners and large global investors for the latest fundraising plan.
Flipkart is currently valued at over USD 40 billion and may dilute around 7% for raising as much as USD 3 billion, the Mint report said.
In 2021, Flipkart raised USD 3.6 billion in a funding round, giving it a valuation of USD 37.6 billion. This round of funding was led by financial investors GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Walmart, along with investments from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and marquee investors Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton and Tiger Global.
Walmart acquired a roughly 77% stake in Flipkart for about USD 16 billion in 2018, one of its biggest deals ever and said later that year that it could take the company public in four years. The remainder of the business is held by other shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent, Tiger Global and Microsoft Corp. Moving forward, Flipkart’s financials will be reported as part of Walmart’s International business segment.
In April 2022, Reuters reported that Indian ecommerce company Flipkart has internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to USD 60 billion to USD 70 billion and plans a US listing in 2023 instead of this year.
The main reason for waiting for the IPO is due to Flipkart’s internal plan to boost valuations further by focussing on two of its relatively new businesses, online healthcare services and travel bookings. It is also said that the ongoing global market turmoil sparked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis also forced the Indian company to reconsider its timeline.
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