Walmart has paid $1.4 billion (roughly Rs. 11,520 crore) to buy out hedge fund Tiger Global’s investment in e-commerce firm Flipkart, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a letter by the hedge-fund to its investors.
A Walmart spokesperson confirmed the transaction in an emailed response to Reuters but did not comment on financial details of the deal.
The transaction will value the e-commerce firm at $35 billion (roughly Rs. 2,88,010 crore), the WSJ report said.
“We remain confident in the future of Flipkart and are even more positive about the opportunity in India today than when we first invested,” the Walmart spokesperson said.
Tiger Global did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Earlier this year, the Economics Times reported that private equity firms Accel and Tiger Global, two early backers of Flipkart, were in talks to sell their remaining stake in the company to Walmart.
Tiger Global held about 4 percent of the company, according to the ET report.
Walmart acquired a majority stake of 77 percent in Flipkart for about $16 billion (roughly Rs. 1,31,662 crore) in 2018, and later that year said it could take the company public in four years.
In April last year, Reuters reported that Flipkart had internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60 billion (roughly Rs. 4,90,000 crore) – $70 billion (roughly Rs. 5,70,00 crore), and plans a US listing in 2023.
Earlier this year, Walmart confirmed that it had already paid the Indian government most of the nearly $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,300 crore) in tax owed after digital payments company PhonePe, which the US retailer owns through Flipkart, shifted its headquarters from Singapore to India.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
