SoftBank gets Nexus nod for India’s biggest e-commerce deal

By

Maverick Martins

Published
May 11, 2017

Japan's SoftBank has finally secured the crucial nod from co-investor Nexus Venture Partners (NVP) for sale of Snapdeal to India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart which is expected to be the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space; a media agency reported citing sources.

 
SoftBank the largest shareholder in Snapdeal had secured a go-ahead from the founders last month. However, NVP was not in agreement over the valuation suggested by the Japanese firm and hectic parleys were held in the last few weeks to resolve the impasse.
 
According to people familiar with the matter, SoftBank Group has now reached an agreement with NVP to move ahead with the sale plan.

They said the term sheet with Flipkart could be signed within this week and the due diligence for the deal would commence immediately thereafter.
 
Sources said Snapdeal founders would get about USD 25 million each, while NVP could get close to USD 100 million and stake in the merged/new entity. Kalaari could get about USD 70-80 million.
 
Emails sent to Snapdeal, SoftBank, NVP and Kalaari did not elicit any response.
Snapdeal was valued at USD 6.5 billion in its last funding round in February 2016. The valuation, however, has shrunk since then and the potential deal could see Snapdeal being valued at about USD 1 billion, said market watchers.
 
SoftBank said it suffered a loss of USD 1 billion (Rs 6,500 crore) on its investment in Snapdeal during 2016-17, almost matching the money it put in the home-grown marketplace.