Retail group Walmart has increased its stake in Flipkart, the India-based e-commerce marketplace also backed by fellow corporates Tencent and Microsoft, from 77% to 81.3%, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.
Flipkart’s e-commerce platform features consumer goods across some 80 categories including electronics, household goods, clothing, toys, appliances and sporting equipment.
Walmart paid $16bn for a 77% stake in the company in August this year, providing an exit for investors including telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund, media company Bennett Coleman & Co, e-commerce firm eBay and media and e-commerce group Naspers.
The deal included $2bn of equity funding and The Hindu suggested that capital could have been responsible for some of the increase in Walmart’s stake size. Internet group Tencent now owns a 5.4% stake in Flipkart and software provider Microsoft 1.5%, according to information sourced from Paper.vc.
The company’s other existing investors are hedge fund manager Tiger Global Management (4.8%), co-founder Binny Bansal (4.2%), venture capital firms Accel (1.4%) and Iconiq Capital (1%), the Singapore state-owned Temasek (0.3%) and financial services firm UBS (0.2%).
Walmart is reportedly also interested in seeking external investment for Flipkart, a person familiar with the matter told The Hindu, stating that it was in talks with Microsoft, internet technology provider Google and semiconductor producer Intel over possible funding.
