Tencent Buys Stake Worth $264 Million In Flipkart

Tencent buys stake worth $264 million in Flipkart

Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent has bought stake worth $264 million (about INR 2,060 crore)in Flipkart through its European subsidiary from its co-founder Binny Bansal, according to reports. Bansal holds around 1.84 percent stake in Flipkart after selling his stake to Tencent Cloud Europe BV. According to report, the deal was finalised on October 26, 2021, and the information was shared with government officials at the start of the current fiscal year.

Tencent	Flipkart
Multinational conglomerate company	Online retail company
Founded: 11 November 1998, Cayman Islands	Founded: October 2007, Bengaluru
Headquarters: Shenzhen, China	CEO: Kalyan Krishnamurthy (Jan 2017–)
Revenue: 48,206.4 crores CNY (2020)	Headquarters: Bengaluru
Net income: 22,781 crores CNY (US$35.32 billion, 2021)	Subsidiaries: Myntra, PhonePe, Ekart, Mallers, Inc., MORE
Number of employees: 1,12,771 (2021)	Parent organization: Walmart
Founders: Ma Huateng, daniel, Zhang Zhidong, Chen Yidan, kney	Founders: Binny Bansal, Sachin Bansal

Following the transaction, the Tencent arm owns a 0.72 percent stake in Flipkart, which is valued at around $264 million, according to a final valuation of $37.6 billion reported by the e-commerce firm in July 2021.Flipkart had raised $3.6 billion at the time in an investment round headed by GIC, CPP Investments, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Walmart.

DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton, and Tiger Global were among the many investors who took part in the round. Tencent Holdings Ltd., often known as Tencent, has a net worth of $449.95 billion as of June 3, 2022. Tencent Holdings Limited is a company that provides Internet services. Tencent offers Internet, mobile, and telecom services, as well as online advertising.

Reports said that the transaction took place in Singapore, but Flipkart informed the Indian authorities about it as a responsible entity and that the transaction does not fall under the purview of ‘Press Note 3’which calls for scrutiny of investment that any Indian company gets from countries sharing land border with India. While Tencent has invested in many enterprises in India, the government has banned various gaming apps, including PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite, which were developed by Tencent Group. According to the PTI report, e-mail query sent to Flipkart and Bansal did not elicit any reply.