PC: Reuters
What the Walmart-Flipkart deal has in store for the Indian e-commerce ecosystem remains to be seen but it sure has raked in the moolah for some of its employees. According to reports, a bunch of current and former Flipkart employees who still hold shares in the company are likely to become dollar millionaires. As many as 3,000 employees out of its 10,000-employees workforce are still holding shares in Flipkart.
On Wednesday, during an employee town hall, a big cheer rung across as co-founder and Group CEO Binny Bansal announced a 100% buyback of vested ESOPs (employee stock options). A report in the Times of India mentioned that the buyback could be at around $150 or Rs 10,000 a share.
As mentioned in the newspaper, amongst the ones turning millionaires are Sameer Nigam, CEO and founder of PhonePe, Amod Malviya, former chief technology officer, Sujeet Kumar, former president of operations, Vaibform Udaan.
While Flipkart has made many millionaires, it is still a long way till they catch up with Infosys that created 20,000 rupee millionaires and 500 dollar millionaires in 1990s and 2000s.
On Wednesday, Walmart bought around 77% stake in India's online retail market leader for $16 billion, valuing Flipkart close to $20 billion. However, according to reports, trade experts believe that such a huge M&A would cause a 'rumble' in the industry.
While Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal will sell his entire stake, Group CEO Binny Bansal along with Chinese investment giant Tencent Holdings, US hedge fund Tiger Global and Microsoft will continue to hold their stake in the new entity. Walmart, which intends to use a combination of debt and cash on hand to finance the purchase, will also pump in additional $2 billion into the online major to push further growth.
After his decision to sell the entire 5.5% stake to the US retail behemoth Walmart, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal would likely take away around $1 billion from the mega deal. But, he would also have to pay around 20% capital gains tax.
Flipkart was started in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal at a 2BHK-flat in Bengaluru's Koramangala.