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Naspers Sells Stake In India’s Largest E-Commerce Marketplace To Walmart For $2.2B

Naspers Sells Stake In India’s Largest E-Commerce Marketplace To Walmart For $2.2B

Walmart
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr

Naspers, Africa’s biggest company by market value, has sold its entire stake in Indian e-commerce marketplace Flipkart to Walmart for $2.2 billion.

This represents a 11.18 percent stake in the online firm, India’s largest property in the e-commerce space, which saw the initial investment from Naspers in 2012, according to ITWebAfrica.

Cape Town-based Naspers is a global internet and entertainment group that has built a reputation as one of the largest technology investors in the world.

It owns stakes in numerous international companies including Multichoice, ShowMax, Mail.ru, PayU, Konga, Takealot.com, OLX and Chinese investment holding company Tencent, giving Naspers a market value of around $90 billion.

The proceeds from the sale of the Flipkart stake will be used to fund investments geared at supporting the growth of its classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses globally. Other growth opportunities would also be prioritized as and when they are identified.

Last year Naspers invested around $433 million for a minority stake in Germany-based Delivery Hero, the leading global online food ordering and delivery marketplace, according to MoneyWeb.

U.S. multinational retail corporation Walmart will buy the Naspers stake as part of a larger deal that would give them a controlling stake in the Indian company.

India’s largest e-commerce marketplace for Walmart

Walmart will pay $16 billion for around 77 percent of Flipkart, making it the U.S. retailer’s largest deal to date, according to BBC.

Walmart has been in a bidding war with U.S. rival Amazon for the control of the Indian e-commerce leader, BizNews reports.

Flipkart has been Amazon’s most staunch competitor in the valuable Indian market, and the American e-commerce firm attempted to ruin Walmart’s plans with their own offer for the available stake, before the deal was agreed in favor of Walmart.

This benefited Naspers, as the South African company made a $1.6 billion profit for the sale of its stake in the Indian startup.

Bob van Dijk, Naspers Group CEO expressed his confidence in India as a market in which the company has several interests, while explaining the firm’s decision to sell their Flipkart shares.

“India is one of the most exciting markets in the world. We are proud to back Indian entrepreneurs whom we believe have what it takes to build outstanding and long-lasting businesses, and Flipkart is a great example of this,” Van Dijk said, according to BizNews.

“Our decision to sell is consistent with our strategy to realise value from the businesses we help to build. The time has come for us to wish the team well for the next chapter of their story, and we are excited about the future of OLX, PayU, Swiggy and MakeMyTrip,” he added.

While the sale is likely to officially go through later in the year, it remains subject to regulatory approval.