Tiger Global Management, Accel, Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, and other investors have made a full exit from the e-commerce firm, selling shares worth $3 billion to US retail giant Walmart’s Luxembourg entity FIT Holdings SARL.
According to filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), several investors divested their stakes in the e-commerce firm on July 28.
Hedge fund Tiger Global Management offloaded shares worth $1.4 billion while Binny Bansal amassed $637 million from the share sale. Accel sold shares worth $397 million, INQ Holding realized $272 million and Omega Oryx made sales worth $200 million. Walmart acquired Franklin Templeton’s shares worth $45 million and Antara Capital’s holdings worth $50 million.
In total, Walmart purchased 8.9% of Flipkart shares worth $3 billion.
The sale valued Flipkart at $34.6 billion, down from nearly $38 billion when it sold shares to Japan’s SoftBank, Walmart and other investors in 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Walmart acquired a roughly 77% stake in Flipkart for about $16 billion in 2018 – its biggest deal ever – and said later that year that it could take the company public in four years.
Binny Bansal’s stake sale comes five years after Sachin Bansal, another co-founder of Flipkart, sold his entire stake to Walmart.
In June last year, ACRA filings also showed that Binny Bansal sold a stake worth nearly $250 million in the company to Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. He also offloaded a stake worth $76 million to Walmart in 2019.
Binny Bansal along with Sachin Bansal (not related) launched Flipkart in 2007, a little before the startup frenzy had begun to catch up in India. Flipkart went on to become one of the largest e-commerce companies in the country, playing a significant role in shaping India’s online retail industry.
Flipkart offers groceries in 1,800 cities and towns and aims to take its offering to 2,000 more towns this year. Fresh fruits and vegetables will be an integral part of the expansion, according to an earlier announcement.