Within The Next Four Years, Walmart May launch IPO for Flipkart

Updated on November 22, 2021

On Saturday, Mumbai (Reuters)-Walmart Inc said in a filing that it may take India’s Flipkart public in as early as four years, detailing for the first time a potential listing timeline for the largest acquisition Walmart could ever had.

Few of the investors who are holding around 60% of Flipkart’s share are acting together may require the company to effect IPO (Initial Private Offering), four years after Walmart-Flipkart transaction has closed, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said in a filing on May 11 with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing likewise state that, there is need for the initial private offering to be done at no less a valuation that what has been invested by Walmart in the Indian e-commerce firm. It was earlier announced this week by Walmart that a sum of $16 billion would be paid for 77 percent stake in Flipkart in what will be the largest deal by the U.S retail giants as well as a move to take on their major rival, Amazon.com Inc in the growing market. The investment shows that a valuation of around $21 billion for Bengaluru-headquartered Flipkart.

78261294 – conceptual vector logo of flipkart. flipkart is an indian market e-commerce website.

Those that holds smaller share after the deal include a co-founder Binny Bansal, China’s Tencent Holding, Microsoft Corp as well as U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global Management. The deal now need to be cleared from Indian’s anti-trust regulator and is also expected to close in the later part of this year.

As part of the deal, Walmart will initially appoint five of the directors to FLipkart’s board; the minority shareholder will name two of the directors while one seat will be taken by Bansal, as stated by the filing.

Walmart likewise say that, in the future, a six board member would be appointed with the approval of majority of those directing Flipkart.

It was also stated that it could either appoint or replace Flipkart’s chief executive as well as other key executives of the group companies after making necessary consultations with the board as well as Bansal.

Walmart or its unit can likewise ask Flipkart to provide a new ordinary shares of about $3 billion before the closure of the “transaction and on or before the first anniversary of the closing”, it said. The Reuters have previously reported that there was a conversation with the parent Alphabet of Google (GOOGL.O) so as to invest around $3 billion and thus have about 15 percent stake in Flipkart. This deal can be sealed before the closure of the Walmart-Flipkart transaction or immediately after, this was reported by a source because this is a private conversation.

It was also stated by Walmart that no party would be liable to pay a termination fee if there is a termination in the purchase agreement or share issuance with Flipkart.

It was reported on Friday by the Economic Times newspaper , citing an unnamed source, that Japan’s SoftBank Group, which owns around 20 percent of FLipkart share, was thinking about its exit because of tax liabilities and the potential value it saw in Flipkart.

The chief executive of Softbank, Masayoshi Son has earlier said that the investment they had in Flipkart has increased to around $4 billion. The growth was attained after SoftBank used its Vision Fund to invest around $2.5 billion in FLipkart for duration of 9 months.

This comment has been declined by a spokesman for SoftBank in India.

Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin and Binny Bansal who are former employees of Amazon, and they bagan selling books just like Amazon.

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