Flipkart’s valuation marked down by yet another investor
1 min read 01 Jul 2016, 02:01 PM ISTVanguard , which invested in Flipkart in the series G and H rounds it raised in 2014, marks down the value of Flipkart shares by 25%
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Bengaluru: Another mutual fund, this time one managed by US-based investment firm Vanguard Group, has marked down the value of shares it holds in India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart Ltd.
The news was first reported by VCCircle.
Vanguard, which invested in Flipkart in the series G and H rounds it raised in 2014, 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). This brings down Flipkart’s valuation to $11 billion, according to the report.
When it last raised money in May 2015, Flipkart was valued at $15 billion.
A Flipkart spokesperson said in an e-mailed response that they would not comment on this.
This is among a series of such markdowns Flipkart has seen this year.
In May, Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund Trust, a mutual fund investor in Flipkart Ltd, lowered its estimate of the online retailer’s valuation by 15.5% for the second successive quarter in a row, implying that Morgan Stanley valued Flipkart at $9.39 billion. Read more
In May itself, two small mutual fund investors, Valic Co 1 and Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II, also marked down Flipkart’s value. Valic marked down the value by 29.4% as of February compared with August 2015, according to SEC filings, and valued Flipkart’s Series D stock at $98 a share in February, down from $139 a share in August. Read more
Fidelity marked down Flipkart’s value by as much as 39.6% as of February compared with last August. It valued Flipkart’s Series D stock at $82 a share in February, down from $135.8 a share in August.
In April, T. Rowe Price disclosed in a filing that it cut the value of its stake in Flipkart by 15%.
Mint reported on 14 April that Flipkart Ltd has held funding talks with more than 15 investors over the past six months, all of whom have refused to invest in the company at its preferred valuation of $15 billion. Read more
The company is battling with the India arm of Amazon.com Inc. and local rival Snapdeal (run by Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd) for market share and dominance of India’s e-commerce market, estimated to be around $38 billion, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
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