Parent Walmart paid $3.5 billion to acquire shares in Flipkart from non-controlling stakeholders, including co-founder Binny Bansal, the American retailer said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
As reported by Moneycontrol in August, Bansal, along with Accel, one of Flipkart’s earliest investors, and US-based Tiger Global Management fully exited the Indian e-commerce player by selling their stakes to Walmart. Along with them, Franklin Templeton and a few other early investors in the e-commerce company too sold their shares to Walmart.
A spokesperson for Walmart confirmed the developments to Moneycontrol in August and said the company acquired additional shares in Flipkart from some investors, including Tiger Global, but didn’t share more names.
“During the six months ended July 31, 2023, the company paid $3.5 billion to acquire shares from certain Flipkart non-controlling interest holders and settle the liability to former non-controlling interest holders of PhonePe,” Walmart said in its filing.
In 2018, global retail giant Walmart had bought 77 percent in Flipkart for $16 billion. While its stake slipped to around 75 percent in between, Walmart now owns a little over 80 percent, according to data available on Tracxn, a private market data provider.
“Additionally, during the six months ended July 31, 2023, the company received $0.7 billion related to new rounds of equity funding for the company's majority-owned PhonePe subsidiary,” the filing added.
While Sachin Bansal, a co-founder of Flipkart, sold his entire stake to Walmart in 2018, and netted about $1 billion, Binny Bansal continued to hold onto a small stake in Flipkart.
Binny Bansal, who made about $1-1.5 billion, is planning a new venture in the e-commerce space after a five-year non-compete clause with Walmart ended this year.
Similarly, Accel, both India and US together, made $1.5-2 billion, clocking 25-30X return on its investment of about $60-80 million in Flipkart. The deal took place at a valuation of around $35 billion, reflecting Flipkart's growth.
Tiger Global also made gains of around $3.5 billion, as reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier.
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