Walmart to divest 25 per cent stake in Flipkart

US retail player Walmart plans to divest 25 per cent stake in Flipkart and will float a $10 billion Flipkart IPO in the US. Walmart roped in investment bank Goldman Sachs to explore the Flipkart IPO plan. The IPO would value Flipkart at $40 billion. This is 20 per cent lower than the $50 billion valuation that was expected in September.

Currently Walmart has 82.3 per cent stake in Flipkart, with Tiger Global, Tencent, Accel Partners, and Microsoft being the other key investors. Earlier in July this year, Flipkart raised $1.2 billion in a fresh round of funding, valuing the company at $24.9 billion. This round was led by Walmart.

After acquiring Walmart’s India operations this year, Flipkart also dabbled in the social gaming and augmented reality spaces with the acquisitions of Mech Mocha and Scapic.

It has also made a few investments in the fashion space, including USPL which houses Virat Kohli’s Wrogn. It has also invested in Aditya Birla Fashion Retail and Arvind Fashions. Flipkart is also expanding its partnerships with kiranas, which delivered over 3.5 million orders during the Big Billion Days sale this year.