owned Flipkart to defer IPO; prioritise profitability this financial year

Walmart-owned Flipkart to defer IPO; prioritise profitability this financial year

Walmart has asked Flipkart to delay its IPO and pre IPO funding, focus on achieving EBITDA breakeven by FY 2027, and prioritize profitable units amid intense e commerce competition

By Moneycontrol News

US-based retailer Walmart has asked e-commerce major Flipkart to defer its initial public offering (IPO) plans for now and instead focus on achieving EBITDA breakeven before the end of the financial year (FY) 2027, people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.

New visit, new target

The decision to prioritise profitability over raising fresh capital, whether in the private or public markets, was taken during Walmart CEO and President John Furner’s visit to Bengaluru last week. It was his first trip to India, where he met the broader Flipkart team since assuming the role in February.

“Flipkart has internally set a target of achieving EBITDA breakeven before the end of financial year (FY) 2027 (the current financial year),” one of the people cited above said. “This effectively means Flipkart will not go ahead with its planned IPO or even a pre-IPO financing round before meeting that target.”

Flipkart did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries.

Walmart on a tear

For Walmart, this is the second India IPO to be delayed after PhonePe. However, the US retailer, which stands to gain billions of dollars in public market listings in India, is in no hurry. Walmart currently owns 71.8% of PhonePe and over 80% in Flipkart. Walmart is a $1 trillion market capitalisation company listed on NASDAQ in the US, and its share price continues to climb. Over the past 12 months, its share price has been up 36% and currently trades at $132.40 apiece.

Apart from the growth in operations in the US, its global subsidiaries, especially Flipkart, continue to scale, which has helped the company add billions of dollars in market capitalisation (m-cap). At the start of 2018, the year when Walmart acquired Flipkart, Walmart’s m-cap was at around $300 billion and now it is higher. Now, Walmart’s m-cap has crossed $1 trillion – a staggering $700 billion added in a span of about eight years.

Demands not new

Walmart’s push for Flipkart to improve its profitability is not new. In April last year, Moneycontrol had exclusively reported that Flipkart's board had asked group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy to cut monthly cash burn from $40 million to $20 million a month as it prepares for a potential IPO.

While its latest FY26 financials were not available yet, in FY25, Flipkart Internet, the marketplace arm of Flipkart, narrowed its consolidated net loss by approximately 37% to ₹1,494.2 crore in FY25, down from ₹2,358.7 crore in FY24. On a group level, however, the losses were much higher.

The Flipkart group owns Myntra, Cleartrip, eKart, super. money, Shopsy and others. However, the focus on profitability comes amid intense competition. Flipkart is currently scaling units such as Minutes, its 10-minute grocery delivery arm. The business, which was championed by Furner a few days ago, will require capital as Flipkart competes with Amazon Now, Reliance’s JioMart, Eternal’s Blinkit, Zepto, Tata’s BigBasket, Swiggy’s Instamart and more.

Walmart’s demand for profitability will likely result in the Flipkart group choosing to de-prioritise some businesses and spend extra time on the others, and also channelling capital only to areas which are critical. Moneycontrol had exclusively reported on April 16 that Flipkart was exploring investor interest for a pre-IPO funding round of $2-2.5 billion.

However, Walmart is said to have learned to have said in internal discussions that such a fundraiser could distract Flipkart’s top management from efforts to improve profitability.

To be sure, Flipkart is the leader in e-commerce on a gross merchandise value (GMV) basis with a market share of 50-60%, as per a recent report from ICICI Securities. Its monthly active user (MAU) base also stood at 220 million, the highest among other players such as Meesho, which had 200 million MAUs and Amazon, which recorded 150 million MAUs, the report added.

Walmart Changes

The discussions on deferring Flipkart’s IPO come at a time when Walmart has seen leadership changes at a global level. Over the last six months or so, Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon has retired, and the CEO of its international business, Kathryn McLay, also left the company after a two-and-a-half-year stint. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy has long enjoyed the trust of both McMillon and McLay.

Similarly, Judith McKenna, who was the CEO of Walmart’s International business from 2018 to 2023, retired from the top post. McKena had also led the $16 billion Flipkart acquisition in 2018 and then worked closely with Flipkart CEO Krishnamurthy. To be sure, this is not the first time Flipkart has pushed out its IPO plans.

It was reported in 2019 that Flipkart was considering a US listing in three years, then in 2021, Walmart’s former CFO Brett Biggs said that a Flipkart IPO was still on the cards. In 2022, Flipkart CEO Krishnamurthy said the company’s IPO could come out next year but those plans did not fructify. While the timeline for Flipkart’s IPO remains unknown for now, the company’s immediate priority is to achieve operational profitability.

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(Edited by : Juviraj Anchil )