$1 billion, the cost for Flipkart under Walmart so far

BENGALURU: Walmart-owned Indian ecommerce company Flipkart has burned nearly $1 billion since the US retail giant acquired a majority stake in it, regulatory filings showed, as it pushes aggressively to stave off rival Amazon for control of the country’s online marketplace. Walmart last week disclosed in regulatory filings that Flipkart had $1.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its books as of April 30, down from the $2.2 billion the Indian company held in August 2018 when the US retail giant invested $16 billion for a 77% stake.
Of the $2.7 billion in cash globally that Walmart said was not freely transferable to the US, “approximately $1.2 billion can only be accessed through dividends or intercompany financing arrangements subject to approval of the Flipkart minority shareholders,” it said in the regulatory filing. This is essentially cash on Flipkart’s books, which Walmart said would be utilised to fund operations at the lossmaking Indian entity. Flipkart did not respond to ET’s queries till press time Friday.