Walmart Inc. spent $1.4 billion in recent days to increase its stake in privately-held Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Walmart WMT, +0.47% has bought out Tiger Global’s stake in Flipkart, according to the Journal, citing a letter from the New York hedge fund to its investors. The transaction reportedly valued Flipkart at about $35 billion, down a bit from its $38 billion valuation in 2021.
Flipkart is one of India’s biggest e-commerce companies, and in 2018 Walmart bought a 77% stake in it for $16 billion.
Flipkart has reportedly been pondering a U.S. IPO for years, and Reuters reported in April 2022 that the company had raised its IPO valuation target to $60 billion to $70 billion, with an eye toward a 2023 offering — which so far has not come to fruition.