CCI clears Walmart-flipkart deal PHONEPE RAISES ₹452 CRORE FROM FLIPKART

MUMBAI/BENGALURU: India’s antitrust regulator has approved Walmart Inc.’s $16-billion purchase of Flipkart, despite protests from traders across the country over fears that the deal would drive several small retailers out of business.

On Wednesday evening, The Competition Commission of India (CCI) posted a tweet from its official Twitter handle, confirming it had approved the deal, without sharing any further details.

Interestingly, CCI said that Flipkart’s discounting practices may need to be dealt with separately, an issue that assumes significance in the wake of the new draft policy that proposes further restrictions on discounting by online marketplaces. India already bans discounting by online marketplaces.

“The issues concerning FDI policy would need to be addressed in that policy space to ensure that online market platforms remain a true marketplace providing access to all retailers,” CCI said in its order.

CCI’S approval, which had

been expected by Walmart and Flipkart sometime this month, paves the way for the companies to close the deal.

On May 9, Walmart agreed to pay $16 billion for a 77% stake in Flipkart, valuing India’s largest start-up at about $21 billion in what is one of the biggest acquisitions in the country.

Walmart had sought approval for the deal on May 19, days after it announced the proposed buyout of Flipkart. At the time, Walmart had said the deal did not create any competition concerns and that the pecking order of the broader retail market in India

would remain unaffected by it.

Walmart welcomed the CCI’S decision. “Our partnership with Flipkart is testament to our continued confidence in our ability to contribute to this market. Flipkart is a prominent player in India with a strong, entrepreneurial leadership team that is a good cultural fit with Walmart. We believe that the combination of Walmart’s global expertise and Flipkart will position us for longterm success and enable us to contribute to the economic growth,” Walmart said.

Shrutika Verma in New Delhi contributed to this story.

BENGALURU: Online retailer Flipkart has infused about ₹452 crore ($66 million) into its payments arm Phonepe Pvt. Ltd, at a time when the Upi-based (unified payments interface) platform is expanding aggressively to take on Softbank-backed rival payments start-up Paytm.

According to regulatory documents sourced from

Phonepe received the latest fund infusion from Flipkart in July. Phonepe has been Flipkart’s big bet in digital payments after several failed attempts.

Last October, Flipkart said it would invest $500 million to expand Phonepe. The pledge was in addition to the $75 million infused by Flipkart in the mobile payments businesses since it acquired Phonepe in April 2016.

Last week, Phonepe claimed that it was the largest Upi-based payments player in the country, ahead of the likes of Paytm and Google’s Tez app, citing data from the National Payments Corp. of India. In July, Phonepe bought the point-of-sale business of Zopper, a hyperlocal mobile marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses, as part of a broader strategy to ramp up its offline business. In November, Phonepe launched its own point-of-sale device for small merchants. Since Flipkart bought Phonepe, which was started by three former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, the payments business has emerged as an integral part of Flipkart’s overall strategy. During the talks leading up to the $16-billion buyout of Flipkart, Walmart is believed to have valued Phonepe at around $1-1.5 billion, reported on May 9.

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