Accel, Tiger Global in talks to exit Flipkart in $1.5 billion stake sale: Report

Private equity company Accel Partners and Investment management company Tiger Global, two early backers of ecommerce giant Flipkart, are in talks to sell their remaining stake in the company to parent Walmart Inc for about $1.5 billion, The Economic Times reported on Thursday.

Accel owns a little over 1 per cent stake in Flipkart, while Tiger Global holds about 4 per cent stake. Once the deal is finalised, Walmart’s stake will increase from the current 72 per cent.

"They (Accel and Tiger) want to sell and exit now fully. The discussions are moving ahead and the transaction will close in due time," a person familiar with the matter told the publication.

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Accel first invested in Flipkart in 2009 and it’s latest deal is expected to fetch returns as much as $350 million.

Both investment firms are said to be exiting Flipkart as they have to repay their partners or sponsors from funds as the end of the maturity cycle is nearing.

Starting out with an initial $1 million, Accel has invested about $100 million in total in the company over time. The venture fund had clocked returns of about $1 billion when it sold some of its stake during Walmart’s $16-billion acquisition of Flipkart in 2018. Meanwhile, Tiger Global had earned about $2 billion from its partial stake sale from the 2018 Walmart deal.

(With inputs from agencies)