Walmart purchased shares in Flipkart from Binny Bansal, Tiger Global, and others for $3.5 billion
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has spent over $3.5 billion to purchase non-controlling shareholders’ shares in Flipkart, including the company’s co-founder Binny Bansal and renowned investment firms Tiger Global and Accel, among others.
The company reported that 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” in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing in the US.
Additionally, the business secured $0.7 billion in additional rounds of equity fundraising for its majority-owned subsidiary PhonePe during the six months that concluded on July 31.
According to reports, Bansal made between $1 and $1.5 billion from his ownership of Flipkart.
Binny and Sachin Bansal left Flipkart together in 2018 when it was sold to Walmart for around $16 billion.
Binny Bansal sold Tencent his interest in the domestic e-commerce business for $264 million (more than Rs 2,000 crore) last year.
The remaining shares in Flipkart were purchased by retail behemoth Walmart from VC firm Tiger Global in July for $1.4 billion. Walmart reportedly paid the money to increase Flipkart’s shareholding, according to a Wall Street Journal story.
To strengthen its grip over the dominant Indian e-commerce company, Walmart bought the last portion of Tiger Global’s ownership in Flipkart.
On a $1.2 billion investment, Tiger Global saw an aggregate profit of $3.5 billion.
Previously, Flipkart was given a $37.6 billion valuation in a 2021 fundraising round. According to the most recent report, Walmart owned 72% of Flipkart.
