Wal-Mart, American multinational retail chain, is in advanced round of negotiations with Flipkart to invest about $1 billion into India's largest online market place. The move is seen as a joint effort to battle Amazon.
Wal-Mart will take a minority stake in Flipkart, according to sources quoted by Mint. Final terms of the deal are yet to be worked out since the talks are still believed to be underway. The deal is seen as a win-win situation for both Wal-Mart and Flipkart. At a time when the Indian e-commerce is under pressure to obtain funding, the capital infusion would give the firm a much needed boost. The deal would also give Wal-Mart exposure into the Indian e-commerce market.
Both the firms plan to take on rival Amazon and gain more footing in the market.
According to media reports, in June, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos had said that he plans to invest $3 billion into the company's India operations in a bid to gain more customers in the fast growing market.
After US and China, India is the next big potential emerging market where foreign players have made little progress against Alibaba Holding Limited, Bloomberg reported. So far, Wal-Mart's India operations have been limited to business-to-business (B2B) segment in the country, selling products to businesses, organisations and educational institutes.
India's e-commerce market is estimated to grow 67 percent to $38 billion (Rs 2.51 lakh crore) in 2016 from over $23 billion (Rs 1.52 lakh crore) last year, boosted by a rise in Internet and mobile users, according to a study by an industry body Assocham. The country's e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009. It went up to $17 billion in 2014 and to $23 billion in 2015, said DS Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham had said earlier this year.
