As Flipkart‘s big deal with Walmart is nearing, key investors in the e-commerce company have reportedly agreed to sell off their stakes, except SoftBank which is said to be waiting for a better offer. ET reports that Walmart has reached an agreement on buying stakes of Tiger Global Management, Naspers, Accel and Tencent Holdings. Flipkart founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, on the other hand, may sell a portion of their stake in the company. Together, these shareholders hold over 55 percent of stake in Flipkart.
Meanwhile, SoftBank singularly owns the maximum stake of 20 percent and is awaiting an offer which is estimated to be between $15-17 billion. According to reports, US giant Walmart had made an offer of somewhere around $10-12 billion, which is clearly less than what SoftBank is apparently expecting.
To recall, SoftBank had made an investment of $2.5 billion in Flipkart last year in August. People familiar with the development are quoted as saying, “Discussions with SoftBank are still ongoing… Most of the others have come aboard. In a deal like this, there are always ebbs and flows, but there is a time factor to consider as well.” If Walmart’s deal with other stakeholders goes fine, the company will have close to 50 percent ownership in Flipkart.
Recent reports indicated that eBay had disagreed on the deal with Walmart owing to its agreement with Flipkart which allows merchants on the site access to over 150 million customers from eBay worldwide. The proposed deal with Walmart will see a significant jump in Flipkart’s valuation at close to $20-22 billion, which means a 100 percent rise form the valuation it got in April 2017.
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Meanwhile, Flipkart today announced its strategic partnership with smartphone maker Asus. Together, the companies will look at building India-centric products. The Asus Zenfone Max Pro will be the first product to make its debut in the Indian market following the announcement. It is set to go on sale via Flipkart on April 23, 2018.