According to official documents, Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent has purchased a stake in Flipkart worth USD 264 million (approximately Rs 2,060 crore) from its co-founder, Binny Bansal, through its European subsidiary.
Flipkart, headquartered in Singapore, operates solely in India. Bansal now owns approximately 1.84 percent of Flipkart after selling a portion of his stake to Tencent Cloud Europe BV.
The deal was closed on October 26, 2021, and the relevant information was communicated to the appropriate governmental authorities at the beginning of the most recent fiscal year.
Following the completion of the transaction, the Tencent arm will hold a 0.72 percent stake in Flipkart, which according to the most recent valuation of USD 37.6 billion disclosed by the e-commerce company in July 2021, will be worth approximately USD 264 million.
The funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, CPP Investments, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Walmart helped the company raise USD 3.6 billion (about Rs 26,805.6 crore), which caused the valuation of the company to skyrocket to USD 37.6 billion.
Disrupt, the Qatar Investment Authority and Khazanah Nasional Berhad were among the investors who took part in the funding round.
Other prominent contributing investors included Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton, and Tiger Global. Following the completion of Tencent and Bansal’s funding round in July, a transaction between the two companies took place.
The transaction reportedly occurred in Singapore, but Flipkart informed Indian authorities about it as a responsible entity.
Flipkart also stated that the transaction does not fall under the purview of ‘Press Note 3,’ which calls for scrutiny of investment that any Indian company receives from countries sharing a land border with India.
Flipkart stated that the transaction does not fall under the ‘Press Note 3’ purview.
The Indian government has prohibited using specific gaming applications, including PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite, both of which were published by Tencent Group.
This is despite the fact that Tencent has invested in a number of businesses that are currently active in India.
Both Flipkart and Bansal did not respond to an inquiry that was sent to them via email.
