Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal to sell his entire stake to Walmart: Report

New Delhi: Flipkart’s co-founder and chairman Sachin Bansal will sell his entire stake to Walmart amidst reports that the US retail giant has almost finalised the much-anticipated deal with the e-commerce company, as per a financial daily.

The Economic Times has reported that Bansal will sell his entire 5.5% stake in Flipkart to Walmart as he is preparing to exit from it.

Earlier, the ET report said that Walmart will be retaining only one of the two founders, the other being Binny Bansal. Sachin and Binny Bansal, both former Amazon.com Inc employees, founded Flipkart in 2007, and like their US rival, began by selling books.

Walmart will also retain Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who took over as the CEO of Flipkart in January last year, ET said. Krishnamurthy, a former executive of investor US hedge fund Tiger Global Management, is heading the core business of Flipkart, while Binny Bansal last year took the broader strategic role of group CEO and Sachin Bansal remained as executive chairman.

A Reuters report today said that Walmart is likely to announce its deal to buy a controlling stake in Flipkart before the end of this week.

Walmart and Google parent Alphabet Inc will buy up to 75 percent of Flipkart, Reuters quoting sources said.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart will acquire about a 60 percent stake in Flipkart, while Alphabet will get a roughly 15 percent stake in the online marketplace for about USD 3 billion, one of the sources said.

Reuters previously reported that Walmart was in advanced talks to acquire 51 percent or more of the e-commerce player for USD 10 billion to USD 12 billion, valuing Flipkart at some USD 18 billion to USD 20 billion. Walmart is expected to get three board seats at Flipkart and will also have a say in the appointments of the group`s finance, legal and compliance heads, the news agency said.

The Flipkart Group includes fashion portals Myntra-Jabong, payments unit PhonePe and logistics firm Ekart.

With Reuters Inputs