It has now been more than a year. Over this period, Flipkart has faced repeated valuation cuts from some of the most massive investment banks. And no fresh capital investment to prove the futility of these markdowns. Now, the Indian e-commerce behemoth is facing yet another cut in its (bloated!?) valuation, courtesy of T Rowe.
According to a report in ET, T Rowe has pegged the valuation of its share at $93.15 for the quarter ended in December. This is a 4 percent decrease as compared to the share value of $96.29 towards the end of September quarter. With regards to the same, Flipkart’s valuation is now being said to be somewhere in the ballpark of $9.9 billion. The company was last valued at $15 billion when it witnessed fresh capital infusion back in 2015.
This valuation markdown not only comes on the heels of an unexpected and major valuation cut from Morgan Stanley, but also after a recent reshuffling at the highest level of the management. Flipkart has appointed former Tiger Global exec Kalyan Krishnamurthy as the new CEO of the company. Binny Bansal has now assumed the role of CEO for the newly formed Flipkart Group while Sachin Bansal still remains the Chairman.
Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, has given up on the homegrown e-commerce behemoth. It has slashed the value of its shares from more than $142.24 per share at which Flipkart last raised funds to a measly $52.13 per share. This values the once Indian startup poster boy at an appalling $5.54 billion at the end of September quarter. This could further go down if Morgan Stanley plans to further slash the company’s value for the quarter ended in December.
Commenting on the constant markdowns, CEO Binny has called them out as,
mark-downs are a theoretical exercise and valuation will be determined when it raises a new round of funding.
As for Morgan Stanley, it has only marked down its stake in Flipkart over the last year. Whereas there have been other investors who after slashing the value of their shares, marked them up for a particular quarter. This includes Fidelity – marked up its stake by a marginal 3% & Valic — marked up the value of its shares by 10%. But, this induced growth didn’t continue for long. All the investment banks are now back to cutting their stakes in the e-commerce giant once again.
There had previously been much chatter about American retailing giant WalMart stepping foot into the country. This was planned by a huge $1 billion investment into the homegrown e-retailer Flipkart — who is in immediate need of funds. There has, however, been no update for this planned investment to take on Amazon. The company is facing extensive pressure from Amazon, who is continually pumping funds in its Indian operations.
