Richer employees: Flipkart completes $100 million ESOP repurchase

Flipkart

Flipkart Group on Wednesday said it disbursed USD 100 million for repurchasing the employee stock options (ESOPs) of over 3,000 present and past employees across the group companies including Myntra and Jabong besides Flipkart.

"In all, over 3,000 past and present employees of the Flipkart Group participated in the buyback offer that led to a disbursement of over USD 100 million," the company said in a statement.

"Initiated in October, the programme gave all eligible current and former employees of Flipkart, and group companies Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe, an opportunity to sell to the company a part of their vested ESOP units," it added.

The repurchase programme is the single largest liquidity providing event in India by an unlisted, private company to its ESOP holders.

This also marks the fourth instance in the past five years when Flipkart has given its ESOP holders an opportunity to encash a percentage of their vested stock options.

“Employees are our biggest source of strength, without whom Flipkart couldn’t have built the e-commerce industry in India. As an organisation, we believe they should be equal partners in Flipkart’s success. This ESOP repurchase programme is an extension of that culture, and a token of thanks for the dedication and hard work they have put in over the years," said Sachin Bansal, Chairman of Flipkart, and Binny Bansal, Group Chief Executive Officer in a joint statement.

Flipkart last raised USD 2-2.5 billion from Japan’s SoftBank via its USD 100 billion Vision Fund in August. The deal made SoftBank the largest shareholder in Flipkart.