Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal to sell his entire stake to Walmart: Report

Flipkart co-founder and Executive Chairman Sachin Bansal will sell his entire stake in the company to Walmart, the Economic Times reported today.

Flipkart is in the process of selling its majority stake to US major Walmart and the deal is expected to be announced on Wednesday. Once the deal is done, Sachin will step down from the Flipkart board.

"Sachin was to stay on till very recently, but there was a disagreement between the Flipkart board and him on strategies being drawn up for the company after Walmart became the largest shareholder," the ET quoted a source as saying. 

The report further said that Sachin was "not aligned with the strategy and operating structure that was being proposed post Walmart coming on board".

Sachin Bansal, along with Binny Bansal, co-founded Flipkart in 2007 and has 5.5 per cent stake in the e-tailing company. While Sachin is leaving, Binny Bansal will continue to serve as the group CEO and will be additionally appointed as the next Executive Chairman.

Interestingly, Binny Bansal will - if all goes as per reports - replace Sachin Bansal for the second time. In 2016, Sachin Bansal was removed from the post of CEO because of 'performance' issues and Binny was appointed at the helm.  Sachin and Binny Bansal both are former Amazon.com Inc employees.

Reports suggest that Walmart and Google parent Alphabet Inc will buy up to 75 per cent of Flipkart. Walmart will acquire about a 60 per cent stake and Alphabet will buy 15 per cent stake for about USD 3 billion.

Earlier, Flipkart through its regulatory filing to Corporate Affairs Ministry had notified that Binny Bansal has been appointed as additional director of Flipkart with effect from April 27 along with Nishant Verman.

Last year, Flipkart named a former executive of investor US hedge fund Tiger Global Management Kalyan Krishnamurthy as the CEO of the company. Tiger Global has 20 per cent stake in Flipkart with two representatives on the 10-member board. TMG is among the Flipkart's major investors.

According to Reuters, Tiger Global and venture fund Accel will also sell a majority of their stakes. Japan's SoftBank Group, which owns roughly a fifth of Flipkart through its Vision Fund, is expected to completely exit.