A United States-based mutual fund firm has lowered the valuation for Indian e-commerce company Flipkart by around 36% to $5.58 billion (Rs 37,000 crore approximately), reported Economic Times. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 24, Fidelity Investments said that it had reduced the share price from $81.55 (Rs 5,500 approximately) in August last year to $52.13 (Rs 3,500 approximately) in November 2016.
The mutual fund firm currently holds 52,096 shares in Flipkart, according to Mint. The lowered valuation is similar to that by Morgan Stanley. In November last year, Morgan Stanley had lowered Flipkart’s valuation by 38% to $5.54 billion (approximately Rs 38,030 crore).
Although the company’s senior executives did not comment on the recent markdown, co-founder Sachin Bansal had told Mint earlier that such valuation markdowns were only “theoretical exercises”. He had added that the company was not bothered about the consecutive lowering of its valuation.
This comes at a time when Flipkart is undergoing a major organisational rejig. It had named former Tiger Global executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy its Chief Executive Officer on January 9. Company co-founder Binny Bansal, who had been CEO, was named the group chief executive.
Last year, the e-commerce giant had lost its number 1 position to Amazon India. Despite this, it was also reported that the compensation to the company’s top-paid employees alone took its expenses to around Rs 300 crore. In the fiscal year 2016, Flipkart Internet (which operates Flipkart) posted a loss of Rs 2,306 crore, more than double from a year ago. This is despite its revenue growing around 140% to Rs 1,952 crore.
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