New Delhi 31 Jul : Walmart has bought out hedge fund Tiger Global’s stake for $1.4 billion in the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, a Reuters report quoted a Wall Street Journal report as saying.The report said that the deal has brought the e-commerce company’s valuation to $35 billion from about $38 billion, when the company sold its shares to Japan’s SoftBank, American retailer Walmart, and other investors in 2021.
Tiger Global had invested in Flipkart when Sachin and Binny Bansal launched it in 2007. Additionally, the report noted that Flipkart’s present CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, had served as the mangling director at Tiger Global.
According to a letter sent to the investors, Tiger Global invested approximately $1.2 billion in Flipkart between 2010 and 2015, and has since earned $3.5 billion in profits.
In 2018, Walmart completed its $16-bilion acquisition of Flipkart, raising its total stakes to 77 per cent.
The private equity companies, Accel and Tiger Global, two of the company’s early backers, were reportedly in talks to sell their remaining ownership to Walmart earlier this year, according to a report by the Economic Times.
A report quoted Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer, John David Rainey, as saying that Flipkart has the potential to turn into a $100 billion business due to its strong growth.
He added that Walmart’s ambition of tripling its gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the overseas markets to $200 billion within five years would not be possible without the success of Flipkart and PhonePe’s payments business.