Walmart mentioned on Saturday in a submitting with a U.S. regulator that it might take India’s Flipkart public in as early as 4 years, detailing for the primary time a possible itemizing timeline for Walmart’s largest-ever acquisition.
Minority buyers holding 60 p.c of Flipkart’s shares “performing collectively, might require Flipkart to impact an preliminary public providing” (IPO) 4 years after the shut of the Walmart-Flipkart transaction, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer mentioned in a Might 11 submitting with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee.
The IPO needs to be carried out at no much less a valuation than that at which Walmart invested within the Indian e-commerce agency, the submitting mentioned.
Walmart introduced earlier this week that it’s going to pay $16 billion for a roughly 77 p.c stake in Flipkart in what’s the U.S. retail large’s largest-ever deal and a transfer to tackle arch rival Amazon in a key progress market.
The funding implies a valuation of almost $21 billion for Bengaluru-headquartered Flipkart.
Minority shareholders after the deal embody co-founder Binny Bansal, China’s Tencent Holdings, U.S. hedge fund Tiger International Administration and Microsoft.
The deal now awaits clearance from India’s anti-trust regulator and is anticipated to shut later this yr.
As a part of the deal, Walmart will initially appoint 5 administrators to Flipkart’s board, two administrators will likely be named by minority shareholders whereas Bansal will take one board seat, in line with the submitting.
Walmart mentioned it might, in future, appoint a sixth board member with the approval of the vast majority of the Flipkart administrators.
It additionally mentioned it might appoint or substitute Flipkart’s chief govt and different key executives of group corporations in session with Bansal and the board.
Walmart or its items might ask Flipkart to situation new atypical shares of as much as $three billion earlier than the shut of the “transactions and on or earlier than the primary anniversary of the closing”, it mentioned.
Reuters beforehand reported that Google-parent Alphabet was in talks to take a position about $three billion for a roughly 15 p.c stake in Flipkart.
That deal might be sealed earlier than the shut of the Walmart-Flipkart transaction or instantly after, a supply instructed Reuters, declining to be named because the talks are personal.
Walmart additionally mentioned no social gathering could be liable to pay a termination price if a share issuance or buy settlement with Flipkart had been terminated.
The Financial Occasions newspaper reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources, that Japan’s SoftBank Group, which owns a roughly 20 p.c stake in Flipkart, was rethinking its exit as a consequence of tax liabilities and since it noticed additional worth in Flipkart.
SoftBank Chief Govt Masayoshi Son has mentioned that their funding in Flipkart had grown to virtually $four billion. That progress got here simply 9 months after SoftBank used its Imaginative and prescient Fund to take a position about $2.5 billion in Flipkart.
A spokeswoman for SoftBank in India declined remark.
Former Amazon workers Sachin and Binny Bansal based Flipkart in 2007 and, similar to Amazon, started by promoting books.
