Walmart Inc. (WMT) invested $1.4 billion to increase its stake in Indian e-commerce juggernaut Flipkart, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Key Takeaways
- Walmart paid $1.4 billion to increase its stake in Flipkart, one of India’s largest e-commerce players.
- Tiger Global has exited Flipkart, netting $3.5 billion in total gains from a phased sell-off.
- Flipkart is now valued at about $35 billion.
What’s The Flipkart Deal?
The world’s largest retailer by revenue doubled down on its India bet by increasing its stake in Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce player. Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion in 2018. At that time, the remaining share of the business was owned by a group of existing investors, including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Tiger Global Management LLC, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Flipkart founders.
In the deal reported Sunday, Walmart spent $1.4 billion for Tiger Global’s 4% stake in Flipkart and an undisclosed additional sum on shares from other investors, including buying out Accel Partners’ 1% stake, The Economic Times reported. Flipkart is now valued at $35 billion, down slightly from a 2021 valuation closer to $38 billion.
The Flipkart investment has reaped big gains for Tiger Global. According to The Wall Street Journal, the hedge fund invested about $1.2 billion into Flipkart and took home net gains of roughly $3.5 billion on that investment.
Talks between Tiger, Accel, and Walmart were initially reported more than six months ago by The Economic Times. The exit was planned primarily so that both firms could repay partners and sponsors in funds nearing maturity.
Flipkart is a key part of Walmart’s foreign markets strategy as the U.S. multinational strives to double gross merchandise sales volume abroad. Mexican digital payments app Cashi is also part of that push.