The initial public offering (IPO) of Walmart’s e-commerce platform Flipkart and digital payment platform PhonePe might take a couple of years, said a Walmart executive. This was first reported by Reuters.
Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, told Reuters, “This is something we're looking at over the next couple of years.”
Even though Flipkart’s business is more mature, Walmart might put the IPO of PhonePe before Flipkart. PhonePe is "one of the largest payment platforms" in the country, he said. He reportedly highlighted PhonePe's integration with India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which enables users to transfer money across multiple banks without revealing their account details.
Talking about PhonePe, Barlett said, “There's a lot of processes that have to be put in place before we go public.” He added that the question of listing the future IPO on the Indian exchange versus others is under consideration.
Read: Waiting for the right time for Flipkart IPO: Walmart International CEO
Last year, the chief financial officer of Walmart mentioned at an investor conference that Flipkart and PhonePe could be $100 billion businesses in India. Although Walmart doesn't provide separate sales figures for PhonePe and Flipkart, it has emphasised that these two businesses are crucial drivers of the company's growth.
Walmart's Chief Financial Officer, John David Rainey, said, as per Reuters, "It is not crazy to think that both those businesses could be $100 billion businesses in the future.”
PhonePe’s share in the market is growing. As per the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), PhonePe’s UPI market share in May was 49.2 percent. It increased from 47.35 percent in February this year. The digital payment platform had transactions that were worth Rs 683.19 crore, and it was valued at Rs 10.33 crore. Google Pay and Paytm took the second and third positions in terms of UPI share, respectively.
