Walmart offer: Flipkart employees to turn millionaires as US retail giant to buy ESOPs worth $800 mn

New Delhi: Walmart-backed Flipkart will offer its employees an opportunity to cash in on part of their stockholding in the company at $126-128 per share, according to an e-mail to staff.

The e-mail, which follows the $16-billion deal by Walmart to buy a majority holding in the Indian e-commerce major, said eligible staff members will be allowed to liquidate part of their employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) at $126-128 per unit.

This would translate into a total sum of about $800 million (around ₹5,755 crore). In a recent filing with the US SEC, Walmart had said it has “reserved 11,947,026 company ordinary shares for issuance under the company option plans, of which options to purchase 6,242,271 company ordinary shares are outstanding as of the agreement date”. [caption id=“attachment_4237505” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] A Flipkart spokesperson said the ESOP repurchase programme is part of its “continuing efforts to thank and reward our employees for their service”. “Flipkart has a strong culture of fairness and does acknowledge that employees are an invaluable asset. We take immense pride in being the employer of choice and believe in rewarding employees by making them partners in the organisation’s success,” the spokesperson said. Last December, Flipkart had bought back ESOPs worth over $100 million from over 3,000 current and former employees as well as its other units, such as Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe. The mega deal, which saw Walmart buying a 77 percent stake in Flipkart, was announced in May.