Walmart confident Flipkart will hit profitability

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 10, 2022

Walmart is confident that its Indian acquisition Flipkart will become profitable and that it remains supportive of Flipkart going for an initial public offering when the market conditions and its business performance aligns. 

As Flipkart continues on what parent company Walmart believes is its path to profitability, India has also emerged as Walmart’s biggest market for advertisement revenue, Walmart International’s CEO and president Judith McKenna said at the recent Baird 2022 Global Consumer, Technology, and Services Conference in New York, US, the Economic Times reported. Due to this, Flipkart is looking at using its advertisement technology in other markets to boost revenue. Flipkart has already begun offering its software-as-a-service in Chile.  

The time frame for Flipkart’s IPO remains positive but undecided. “When the time is right will depend on a number of factors, not least the market, but also the business performance,” said McKenna, the Economic Times reported. “They’ve hit our deadlines… we wouldn’t have insisted if we didn’t believe they could become profitable in the longer term, as we continue on track for that.”

Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart in 2018 and currently holds a 72% stake in the business. Walmart had stated from the time of the acquisition that it plans to support Flipkart in its aim to launch an IPO.  

“We’ve been really clear and that we’ve been happy at every step of the way over the four years that we’ve made the investment,” said McKenna. “So they’ve achieved our expectations, and they’ve delivered what they need to deliver.”