Walmart assessing right time for Flipkart IPO, sees strong growth in PhonePe too

Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy told Moneycontrol that the firm's board has not yet discussed its IPO, which implies that a public market debut is at least a 2025 or later event.

Walmart is assessing the right time to launch Flipkart’s initial public offering, the US-based retailer told analysts on May 16 while adding that India remains an exciting opportunity for the company.

Flipkart is a homegrown ecommerce giant which Walmart acquired in 2018 for $16 billion. It competes with Amazon in India, a market where e-commerce wars are only intensifying. Both Amazon and Walmart have been pumping in million of dollars to grab a larger share of the e-commerce pie.

“We’re looking and exploring when would be the right time to IPO that (Flipkart) business. There’s strong growth in Flipkart and in PhonePe and we’re excited about the India market,” a Walmart executive told analysts on May 16 after announcing the company’s results on May 16.

Walmart had a better-than-expected Q1FY25. It reported profits of $5.10 billion for the quarter ended April 30 which compares with $1.67 billion in the same period last year.

The company’s revenue rose 6 percent to $161.51 billion in the quarter, up from $152.3 billion in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal year, beating estimates and delivering strong results.

Walmart's comments around Flipkart's IPO come months after the company's CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy told Moneycontrol that the firm's board has not yet discussed its IPO, which implies that a public market debut is at least a 2025 or later event.

The company has however been taking baby steps and preparing itself for an eventual listing on the India exchanges. A report earlier this month suggested that Flipkart is in the process of flipping its base back to India from Singapore.

In India, Walmart owns e-commerce platform Flipkart, payments giant PhonePe and fashion portal Myntra.

Myntra, the fashion e-commerce platform, has been profitable on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) basis for two quarters now and the company’s robust performance has improved Flipkart’s business profile, Walmart said on the same call.

Homegrown e-commerce company Flipkart acquired Myntra in 2014 and then Walmart, the US-based retailer, acquired Flipkart in 2018 for a whopping $16 billion.

“Our e-commerce business is growing in a sustainable way…as Flipkart’s business has grown, we’ve seen Myntra get to EBITDA positive for the last two quarters, we’ve seen some growth in premiumisation – all of that is lifting the profile of the Flipkart business. They’re on track…the growth trajectory we had them on,” the Walmart executive concluded.