BackFlipkart valuation marked down by investors Valic, Fidelity, again
Valic and Fidelity have marked down their shares in Flipkart by 11.3%, and 3.2%, respectively, for the quarter ended August
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Even as it looks to raise $1 billion in fresh capital to compete with rival Amazon in India, Flipkart continues to face valuation markdowns by its mutual fund investors.
Two investors, Valic and Fidelity, who earlier marked up the value of their shares in the company, have again marked down their shares in Flipkart—by 11.3%, and 3.2%, respectively—for the quarter ended August, according to a report in The Economic Times, which puts the firm’s valuation between $8.7 billion and $10.25 billion.
Before their markup, in May, Valic marked down the value by 29.4% as of February 2016 compared with August 2015. Fidelity marked down Flipkart’s value by as much as 39.6% for the same period.
Although Valic and Fidelity together hold a small amount of stock—worth less than $6 million— they are not the only investors to do so.
Flipkart did not respond to an email from Mint seeking comment.
Also read: SoftBank Group writes down $555 million in Ola, Snapdeal investments
Flipkart also saw its valuation marked down by T Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund, which together hold stock worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Flipkart.
Morgan Stanley had marked down its shares in Flipkart for three consecutive quarters. As of 30 June, it values its share in Flipkart holdings at $84.3, 4% lower from the preceding quarter, valuing Flipkart at $9 billion.
The mutual fund investor had cut the value of its Flipkart’s holdings by 15.5% at the end of the quarter ended 31 March, and by 27% at the end of the quarter ended 31 December.
T Rowe Price, as a part of its re-evaluation of the stocks it holds in tech start-ups across the world lowered the value of its holding in Flipkart to $96.29 per share, a 20% erosion, for the quarter ended June. This valued Flipkart at $10.3 billion. The firm had earlier cut the value of its stake in Flipkart by 15% in April.
T Rowe Price had lowered the value of the stock it holds in about 12 start-ups that are valued at more than $1 billion (commonly known as unicorns), including ride-hailing firm Uber Inc. (where it cut the value of its stake by 6%), note-taking firm Evernote Inc. (down by 21%) and rental-platform AirBnB Inc. (by 6%).
The other mutual fund investor that marked down its stake in Flipkart is managed by US-based investment group Vanguard, which invested in Flipkart in the Series G and H rounds it raised in 2014.
Vanguard marked down the value of Flipkart shares by 25%, from $136.87 as on 30 September 2015 to $106.65 as on 31 March 2016, according to regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Vanguard valued Flipkart at $11 billion with this.
Flipkart is not the only Indian company to undergo valuation markdowns by investors.
Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. has written down about $555 million (58.1 billion yen) in ride-hailing compay Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) and e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd), according to the company’s six-monthly earnings report, Mint reported on Tuesday.
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