Walmart has paid $1.4 billion to buy out hedge fund Tiger Global's investment in e-commerce firm Flipkart, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a letter by the hedge-fund to its investors.
A Walmart spokesperson confirmed the transaction in an
emailed response to Reuters but did not comment on financial details of the
deal.
The transaction will value the e-commerce firm at $35 billion,
the WSJ report said.
"We remain confident in the future of Flipkart and are
even more positive about the opportunity in India today than when we first
invested," the Walmart spokesperson said.
Tiger Global did not immediately respond to Reuters' request
for comment.
Earlier this year, the Economics Times reported that private
equity firms Accel and Tiger Global, two early backers of Flipkart, were in
talks to sell their remaining stake in the company to Walmart.
Walmart acquired a majority stake of 77 percent in Flipkart
for about $16 billion in 2018, and later that year said it could take the
company public in four years.
In April last year, Reuters reported that Flipkart had
internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60 billion -
$70 billion, and plans a US listing in 2023.
Earlier this year, Walmart confirmed that it had already
paid the Indian government most of the nearly $1 billion in tax owed after
digital payments company PhonePe, which the US retailer owns through Flipkart,
shifted its headquarters from Singapore to India. © Reuters