Walmart starts fundraising to finance Flipkart deal

US retail giant Walmart Inc. is selling bonds to help finance its acquisition in India’s Flipkart, offering fixed- and floating-rate bonds in as many as nine parts, according to a recent regulatory filing. Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp, HSBC Holdings Plc and Wells Fargo & Co are managing the bond sale.

The deal has attracted heavy skepticism from Wall Street, with many equity analysts either cutting their price target for Walmart’s stock or placing it under review, according to US media reports.

S&P Global Ratings spoke of a 33 per cent chance of it downgrading Walmart’s AA rating in the next two years due to the firm’s ‘aggressive global deal-making’ as it competes with Amazon.

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said last month it will acquire a 77% stake in Flipkart Group for $16 billion, leaving the remainder to Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and other shareholders.

Walmart also plans to continue its current share buyback program, indicating a ‘potentially less conservative financial policy’ going forward, S&P analyst Diya Iyer said in a May report.