Denis Opudo
SoftBank, Naspers Ltd, and Tiger are the largest Flipkart shareholders. SoftBank is concluding a negotiation with Alibaba-backed Paytm E-Commerce Pvt third which plays a critical role in India e-commerce. Walmart has shown interest to acquire third of Flipkart share. The move will push the worth of e-commerce enterprises to sum up to $20 billion from $ 12 billion last year. The deal is expected to trigger tension between Walmart and Amazon.
According to India e-commerce report, Walmart Inc intends to invest $7 billion to emerge the largest India’s e-commerce investor. Additional, Arkansas-based retail, Bentonville has proposed to purchase a third of Flipkart Online Services Pvt. The strategy will be based on stake purchase from SoftBank Group Corp and Tiger Global Management. The negotiations are at critical stages and set for completion this month.
Walmart stake is approximated to have 1.3 billion people after completion of the agreement. This makes Walmart company be the largest retailer in the world. There is, however, the drastic shift of consumers from physical retail stores to online retail platforms. Foreign traders on the other hands have migrated from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Globally, the United States and China top in e-commerce.
Jeff Bezos, Walmart founder noted that the company has put aside $5.5 billion for Indian investment. The company also plans to fortify FlipKart although it experiences economic havoc with Amazon. Tiger Global agreed to withdraw shares from FlipKart as Walmart reduces its investment capacity in Alibaba in the near future. Despite the plot by Walmart to withdraw its share, Flipkart has threatened to introduce new shares.
