Walmart’s Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60-70 billion, and now plans a U.S. listing in 2023 instead of this year, Reuters news report said.
Flipkart, which competes with Amazon.com in India’s booming e-commerce space, had earlier set an IPO valuation goal of $50 billion.
The main reason for waiting for the IPO is due to Flipkart’s internal plan to boost valuations further by focussing on two of its relatively new businesses — online healthcare services and travel bookings.
The global market turmoil sparked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis forced the Indian company to reconsider its timeline.
Flipkart acquired Indian travel booking website Cleartrip in 2021, and this week launched a Health+ app to offer medicines as well as other healthcare products and services.
Walmart CFO Brett Biggs told an analysts conference in December that Flipkart’s business was “performing almost exactly like we thought” and an “IPO is still very much in the cards”, without specifying when the company will list.
The listing is now being planned for early-to-mid 2023. Flipkart is incorporated in Singapore and wants to list in the United States.
The IPO planning comes amid growing protests from Indian brick-and-mortar retailers that Flipkart and Amazon bypass federal regulations and favour select sellers. India is also working on e-commerce sector regulations that could spook foreign giants.
Walmart acquired roughly 77 percent stake in Flipkart for about $16 billion in 2018 – its biggest deal ever – and said later that year that it could take the company public in four years.
Last year, Flipkart raised $3.6 billion in a funding round, giving it a valuation of $37.6 billion.
