Walmart-Flipkart deal deadline pushed back

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 2, 2018

Walmart maintains that it is confident it can close the Flipkart 77 percent stake acquisition deal by the end of 2018 but it has extended its own deadline to June 7, 2019.

This month, Walmart began the process of fundraising to obtain the capital necessary to acquire a 77 percent stake in Flipkart and is doing this by selling $16 billion (Rs 106,444 crore) worth of bonds. Walmart is selling the bonds offering fixed and floating rate notes in nine parts. Now Walmart has set an internal deadline of June 7, 2019, by which it must have closed the deal, otherwise it will have to repay a large portion of the bond issue. The date was set in an 8-K filing made by the business.

Walmart spokespersons maintain that they are still confident of closing the deal by the end of 2018 and that this new deadline is relating to the business’ bond issue. The date set in Walmart’s share purchase agreement with Flipkart is March 9, 2019, according to a regulatory filing made in May.

The deal, although agreed upon by the two businesses, must now be approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Concerns have been raised about how the deal could affect Indian trade groups and on July 2, a wave of protests are scheduled throughout India to oppose the deal. The protests are organised by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) which has stated that the protest will involve ten lakh traders in 1,000 locations in 500 Indian cities.