Wal-Mart in talks to buy stake in Indian online retailer Flipkart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is in talks to buy a minority stake in India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart, two people familiar with the matter said, as the world's biggest retailer aims to break into a fast growing but highly competitive online retail market. 

 

One of the sources said the U.S. retailer was looking to invest between $750 million and $1 billion in Flipkart, but the final value and size of the stake would depend on the outcome of talks about the Indian company's overall valuation. News Updates visit us at Ripples Advisory

 

A deal would pit Wal-Mart against U.S. rival Amazon.com Inc , which has been expanding rapidly in a market that Bank of America Merrill Lynch has forecast will surge to $220 billion in value of goods sold by 2025 from about $11 billion last year. 

 

Wal-Mart operates 21 wholesale stores in the South Asian country, but is discouraged from setting up its own bricks-and-mortar shops by rules that limit foreign ownership for multi-brand retailers to 51 percent and the cost of setting up shops in a country as large as India. 

 

For Flipkart, a cash infusion from Wal-Mart would come in handy at a time when funding from traditional investors into the online space such as venture capital is proving harder to obtain amid worries about valuations in India.