Flipkart buys back $350-million shares regaining private company status

BENGALURU: Online retailer Flipkart, which is in the midst of talks with Walmart for a potential investment, has bought back shares worth $350.46 million from a set of existing investors to regain its private company status, according to the documents filed by Flipkart with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

The ecommerce major has purchased 1,895,574 redeemable preference shares and 174,319 non-redeemable preference shares in a transaction that closed on April 27 and values Flipkart at $17.69 billion, as per information shared by data intelligence platform Paper.vc.

ET was the first to report in its May 2nd edition that Flipkart had set aside $400 million to buyback shares from existing shareholders to bring the count down to below 50 in order to convert the public company into a private one.

Prior to this buyback, Flipkart consisted of 145 entities as shareholders with Vanguard Group and T Rowe Price owning stakes in Flipkart through multiple entities.

The shareholders that have exited include Accel’s Shekhar Kirani, Deep Nisha and a large number of pension funds. IDG Ventures has exited holdings of two of its funds but retains its stake through one of its overseas fund entities. Early backers Tiger Global Management, Accel Partners and Naspers along with the relatively newer investors Microsoft and eBay still remain on Flipkart’s cap table.