Bangalore — Walmart is close to finalising a deal to buy a majority stake in Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce company, for at least $12bn — and could complete the agreement in the next two weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. All the major investors in Flipkart Online Services — which include JSE-listed Naspers — were now on board with the Walmart purchase, after an earlier debate over whether to sell to Amazon.com, said the people, asking not to be named because the matter is private. Tiger Global Management will sell nearly all of its 20% stake in Flipkart, while SoftBank will sell a substantial part of its 20%-plus holding, the people said. Walmart will likely end up with 60%-80% of Flipkart, which will be valued at about $20bn, they said. Among the issues that had still to be resolved were what would happen to Flipkart’s founders and who would lead Flipkart after the purchase, they said. The amount each existing investor sells and the size of Walmart’s final ...
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