CAIT remains sceptical about Flipkart-Walmart deal

New Delhi: US retail behemoth Walmart Inc announced Wednesday that it was acquiring a 77 per cent stake in India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart for about $16 billion (Rs 1.05 lakh crores), in what was pegged as the world’s biggest e-commerce deal.

Walmart for long has been trying to gain a significant foothold in India and the Flipkart acquisition will provide it what it had longed and lobbied for so hard.
Binny Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart with Sachin Bansal 11 years ago, will retain his 5.5 per cent stake and will be chairman of the company’s board. Walmart’s Krish Iyer will be the CEO of the company which will continue to be based out of Bengaluru.

Walmart and Flipkart will remain separate brands and the Indian e-commerce firm will have an independent board, which will be revamped to give representation to the US firm.

The deal is subject to clearance from the CCI and other regulators. It is expected to close later this year.

CAIT, which has been sceptical about big MNC companies with huge cash piles to burn and gain marketshare through “deep discounts” said “the deal is nothing but in the long run a clear attempt to control and dominate the much potential retail trade of India by Walmart through e-commerce, which is only a bridge to reach out to the offline retail market”.