Walmart has been in talks with Flipkart for a significant stake in the homegrown giant for a while now. In latest news it appears that the Amercian company could bag four of the ten seats on Flipkart's board. Flipkart heads, Sachin and Binny Bansal, along with CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy would be holding on to their posts in India's most valuable startup. Sachin Bansal is currently the Executive Chairman and Binny Bansal is the Group CEO of Flipkart. The company could also be targeting a public offering in the future.
According to a source, Flipkart would keep its startup culture to battle Amazon, as mentioned in a report in The Economic Times. The entry of Walmart into the picture would change the shareholding structure of the company but the top management would see no change.
Meanwhile, rival Amazon is also competing for stakes in Amazon. While, Japanese investor SoftBank that holds 20% stake in Flipkart is in favour of Amazon's deal, other investors are not very keen on it as it might not get past competition regulators.
Frontrunner Walmart is expected to pump in over USD 12 billion in Flipkart and to hold 55-60% stake in the company, as some insiders informed the newspaper. With that, it might also control finance and legal matters in the new entity. As mentioned in the newspaper, they might also get a new CFO.
Flipkart's negotiations also mention that the company could eventually head towards public offering. However, the report also mentioned that public offer might be unlikely before 4-5 years. It would also be dependent on Flipkart's profitability and how much of a lead it would take over Amazon India.
While Walmart declined to comment, Flipkart did not respond on this development.