Global retail giant Walmart is inching close to sealing the deal to buy a majority stake in Flipkart for as much as USD 12 billion, even though rival Amazon is still jostling to turn the deal in its favour.
Walmart is likely to buy stakes of multiple Flipkart investors, including that of Tiger Global Management and Softbank to end up with at least 60 per cent holding, they said.
The deal with Walmart, involving primary and secondary shares, is expected to value Flipkart at about USD 20 billion, they added.
One of the persons said possible scrutiny from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well as risks related to sharing competitive data as part of due diligence were some of the reasons for Flipkart investors and management favouring a deal with Walmart and not Amazon, even though the rival's bid was slightly higher.
Amazon is believed to have offered Flipkart a higher valuation of about USD 22 billion, along with a break up fee of USD 2 billion, compared to Walmart's USD 18-20 billion valuation of the Bengaluru-based company.
Emails sent to Flipkart and Walmart did not elicit any response.
"We do not comment on ongoing discussions and/or speculation", SoftBank said in an emailed statement.
Flipkart's major investors -- Tiger Global Management, Accel and Naspers are expected to sell all their shares to the Arkansas-based retailer.
India is a critical market for both Walmart and Amazon and a deal with Flipkart would help either player in consolidating their position in the booming e-commerce market here.
According to Greyhound Research Chief Analyst and CEO Sanchit Vir Gogia, Walmart adding Flipkart to its kitty will act like a shot-in-the-arm and give it a significant up against ace competition, Amazon.
"Flipkart shareholders also stand to gain a better outcome on their returns (as part of deal with Walmart) and the founders and key management get a bigger stake in the game given higher reliance on them to successfully run and grow the commerce business," he added.
Last year, SoftBank Vision Fund had pumped in an estimated USD 2.5 billion in Flipkart for about 20 per cent stake in the company. The Bengaluru-based firm had also raised funds from eBay, Tencent Holdings and Microsoft Corp last year.
If the deal with Walmart goes through, it would provide Flipkart with more arsenal to go up against Amazon in the Indian market.
Amazon and Flipkart are locked in an intense battle for leadership in the Indian market and have pumped in billions of dollars towards marketing and setting up infrastructure in the country.
Amazon, on its own, has committed investments to the tune of USD 5 billion for its operations in India. In a recent investor call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky had said the company will continue to invest in India as it sees "great progress" with both sellers and customers here, even though as the US e-tailing giant had registered a loss of USD 622 million from international operations in the first quarter of 2018.
US-based fund house Valic, which holds around 4,502 shares in Flipkart, and Vanguard World Fund, which has four lakh shares, have pegged the valuation of the e-commerce company between USD 15 billion and USD 19 billion. Flipkart was last valued at about USD 12.5 billion when it raised USD 2.5 billion from Masayoshi Son's SoftBank last year.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)