American retail behemoth, Walmart’s Indian subsidiary, Flipkart, an e-commerce direct to consumer company is looking to publicly list themselves in the American market eyeing up a valuation at around $70 billion USD. The firm did plan to raise money this year but have decided to push back to sometime next year.
The E-commerce space is extremely competitive in India right now with major players such as Amazon, Myntra, Snapdeal, and Flipkart all owning huge chunks of the field. Of these, Amazon recently set their IPO valuation at $50 billion USD.
Flipkart’s primary intention of pushing back their IPO date is due to the fact that they want to increase their valuation before going public in the American markets. The board has identified two fields to take their value to the next level. Online healthcare services and travel booking services. According to Multiple sources, Flipkart has pinpointed these two industries as the key to increase their value more than Amazon India and receive a higher valuation IPO.
Many sources who have direct contacts to the top brass at Flipkart have also come out to say that due to the uncertainty in the current global market and geopolitics, considering the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine, Flipkart came to the conclusion that going public now would not do them favours. The company also did not find it appropriate to start a fresh new chapter during such a tumultuous time.
With rising oil prices globally as well, a new IPO would really hurt their valuation and therefore reduce total share price and consequently will mean that the total funds they receive will be much lower compared to if they do go public in 2023, considering all these worldwide issues go down.
Last year, Flipkart purchased a 100% share in Cleartrip, a portal to purchase your tickets for travelling in a bid to diversify their operations and up their value. It is a company that is known to have an interface that is very easy to use.
Flipkart have also released a new application called “Health+” a platform where you can purchase your medication and book other health related services. This app rivals Tata’s 1mg in the e-commerce medicine field.
According to experts a great time as the coronavirus seems to be dying down and many countries are now opening their borders up for tourism industry.
It seems like Flipkart has been going on the right direction and they might just receive a valuation of $70 billion USD before going public in the American stock exchange.
