Indian online retailer Flipkart is considering going public in the U.S. by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), according to a Bloomberg report.
Walmart (WMT -0.65%), which owns more than three-quarters of the e-commerce company, said in a statement, "We have been clear that we support an IPO for Flipkart, but we have not made any decisions on timing, listing venue, or methodology."
Flipkart is reportedly seeking a valuation of around $35 billion.
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Fight for the future
Flipkart is the largest online retailer in India, but Amazon has made the country a focus for further investment and has been closing in on the Walmart-backed leader. With competition from Reliance Industries and Tata Group, the fight for market dominance is intensifying.
Consulting firm Bain & Company estimates the e-commerce opportunity in India will be between $90 billion and $100 billion by 2025. During Walmart's fourth-quarter earnings conference call Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the company had "roughly 300 million customers shopping 150 million product listings across 80 categories." Like its parent, it recently launched a member loyalty program, called Flipkart+.
A Flipkart IPO would likely prove popular because of its potential as a growth stock and going public via a SPAC would be a faster path than a traditional IPO. When Walmart acquired its stake in 2018 for $16 billion, it said it envisioned taking Flipkart public within four years.
