Binny Bansal sells Flipkart shares worth over $14 million to Tiger Global; Tiger Fund increases stake in e-tailer

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has sold his shares worth over  $14 million (over Rs 100 crore) in the Indian e-commerce major to New York-headquartered hedge fund Tiger Global, as per regulatory filings accessed through data intelligence platform Paper.vc.

“Regulatory filings submitted by Flipkart indicate that former co-founder Binny Bansal has sold a tranche of shares for the third time since Walmart’s takeover of the e-commerce company. This time around, Bansal transferred part of his holding to two Tiger Global funds,” Paper.vc said.

Bansal sold 47,759 equity shares to existing shareholder Internet Fund III Pte Ltd and 54,596 shares to incoming shareholder, Tiger Global Eight Holdings, it added.

This is the third time that Bansal has sold a tranche of his shares since Walmart took over the e-commerce firm, according to a report in Mint.

The #US-based hedge fund, Tiger Fund, increased its equity holding in India's leading etailer #Flipkart by buying 54,596 shares of its co-founder #BinnyBansal for an estimated $14.5 million (Rs 104 crore), business intelligence platform https://t.co/7O02RBwNH0 said on Sept 2. pic.twitter.com/PuYPOjiZGW

— IANS (@ians_india) September 2, 2019

“Our lower end estimate of the consideration for this sale would be approximately $14.5 million, this based on the Walmart acquisition price from 2018. If we incorporate a modest increase in Flipkart’s valuation because of the growth of its subsidiary PhonePe, the number could go up to $25 million,” it said.

Reaction from Binny Bansal could not be elicited.

In June this year, Bansal is said to have sold a small portion of his shares to FIT Holdings SARL, Walmart’s Luxembourg entity, for about $76.4 million. He is also believed to have sold shares worth $159 million during the Walmart takeover.

Binny, who had co-founded Flipkart with Sachin Bansal (not related) in 2007, had sold a small portion of his minority holding during the Walmart deal.

After the deal, Binny Bansal continued to lead Flipkart as Group CEO and co-founder till November last year, when he resigned following a probe into an alleged “serious personal misconduct”.

Binny had strongly denied the allegation and the independent investigation done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart “did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny”.

--With PTI inputs