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As the race between US giants Walmart and Amazon over acquiring stake in Flipkart is set to heat up, reports suggest the Sam Walton-founded company stands a better chance at scooping up the Indian e-commerce leader.
Flipkart is believed to be inclined toward selling a controlling stake to Walmart instead of Amazon, Bloomberg cited sources as saying.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
It further claimed that both the American firms had valued the Indian company at USD 20 billion.
The leadership of Flipkart including founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal recently discussed the proposals from Amazon and Walmart and feel the latter would be able to complete the deal comprehensively. As Walmart does not have any online presence in India it would face fewer regulatory hurdles, while Amazon being the second-largest e-commerce company in India, would have to offer concessions to authorities for continuing to operate two e-commerce sites as independent brands.
Nonetheless, the Walmart deal is apparently being discussed for over a year and could go ahead or fall apart at any time as Flipkart’s largest shareholder SoftBank Group, may be inclined towards Amazon for its success in India. Amazon has committed USD 5.5 billion to boost business in India.
According to Bloomberg, Walmart was looking to take a minority stake in Flipkart, but it could acquiring up to 50 or 60 percent in the company. This deal would also rest in what SoftBank and another shareholder Tiger Global Management have to say. It was previously reported that Walmart could cough up as much as USD 7 billion for a major stake in the Indian company.
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