Walmart Pays $1.4 Billion to Boost Flipkart Stake

Walmart has paid $1.4 billion to buy out a large investor in Flipkart, further cementing its control of the Indian e-commerce giant.

In recent days, Walmart bought the remaining shares of Flipkart owned by Tiger Global, according to a letter the New York hedge-fund sent to its investors that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The transaction valued Flipkart at $35 billion, down from nearly $38 billion when it sold shares to Japan’s SoftBank, Walmart and other investors in 2021. 

The investment offers the U.S. retail behemoth greater exposure to the fast-growing global digital-consumer market.  

Privately held Flipkart is one of the largest e-commerce companies in India. Started in 2007, Flipkart said last month it had a customer base of over 450 million and offered over 150 million products across 80-plus categories through its marketplace.

Flipkart’s business spans everything from traditional e-commerce to an online-prescription service and bricks-and-mortar stores.

In 2018, Walmart paid $16 billion for a 77% stake in the company, its largest acquisition to date. More recently, the stake stood at about 75%; it couldn’t be learned what it is now.

Walmart earns the majority of its revenue and profit from its U.S. business and has pared down other international operations in recent years, selling off much of its stake in U.K. retailer Asda and its operations in Brazil, Japan and Argentina.  

Tiger and Flipkart have a long history. The hedge fund’s first investment in the company dates back to 2009, and Flipkart’s current chief executive, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, is a former managing director at Tiger.

The hedge-fund firm invested nearly $1.2 billion in Flipkart between 2010 and 2015 and has generated $3.5 billion in gains, according to the investor letter, a bright spot in a difficult environment for startup investors.

—Sarah Nassauer contributed to this article.

Write to Peter Rudegeair at [email protected]