Flipkart India cuts down losses to Rs 244 crore in FY17

BENGALURU: Flipkart India, the wholesale arm of the online retailer, has more than halved its losses even while increasing its its revenues and expenses for fiscal year ended March 2017.

The company reported a net loss of Rs 244 crore for FY17, down from Rs 544.5 crore during the previous fiscal, showing a 55% drop in losses, according to the company’s regulatory filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), sourced from datatracking platform Tofler.

Meanwhile, the company’s total expenses shot up by 15% from ?13,722 crore during FY16 to ?15,813 crore. In FY17 its revenues grew 19% by registering Rs 15,264 crore during FY17 compared to Rs 12,818 crore in the previous year.

Singapore-registered Flipkart operates a complex group of companies to comply with regulations while raising foreign funds. A few months ago, Singapore-based parent unit of Flipkart infused Rs 4,472 crore in Flipkart India, making it one of the largest infusions in the entity, ramping up investments to battle it out with rival Amazon India.

Amazon’s wholesale unit in India reported a tremendous jump in turnover of nearly 2,700 times to Rs 7,047 crore during FY17 from Rs 2.63 crore of the previous year.

Both Flipkart and Amazon use the wholesale units as distribution arms that directly source products from brands across the world and then give them to third-party merchants that sell on their platforms.