BENGALURU:
South African internet giant Naspers
, one of the earliest investors to tap India's fledgling consumer
internet sector
, marginally increased its
Flipkart ownership after buying shares worth $71 million in April this year.
The latest annual report of Naspers showed it invested in secondary purchases from
Flipkart's smaller shareholders
to raise its holding in the largest
domestic e-commerce company
to 16%. Naspers held 15% stake in the company previously. In a secondary transaction, an existing investor sells shares to another investor but the money does not come into the company's coffers.
"The group invested $71 million for an additional interest in its associate Flipkart in April 2017. The additional interest was acquired from existing shareholders of Flipkart," the annual report stated. Naspers did not mention from whom it had bought the additional stake. When contacted, a Flipkart spokesperson declined to comment. In April, Flipkart had also announced its largest fund-raise of $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft at $11.6-billion valuation. As part of the deal, it acquired Indian operations of eBay here.
According to the Naspers annual report, Flipkart's monthly share in gross merchandise value (GMV) had increased to 55% as of March 2017 compared to 45% in June 2016. "Competition has intensified in the past year, with Amazon gaining market share in the early part of the year. Flipkart has maintained its leadership position, with recent market share trends suggesting gains," the report noted.
Naspers said Flipkart remains a large opportunity in India given the market is expected to reach $50 billion by 2020.
In September last year, Naspers' payments unit PayU acquired Citrus Pay for $130 million in cash and then announced the $1.8-billion all-stock mega merger of
MakeMyTrip with Ibibo
, giving it 40% control in the merged entity. It recently invested $60 million in food tech startup Swiggy.
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