The final approval seems to have been put in place for the biggest acquisition in Indian ecommerce, with Nexus Venture Partners (NVP) agreeing for the sale of Snapdeal to homegrown ecommerce behemoth Flipkart.
With the largest shareholder in Snapdeal, SoftBank, securing a go-ahead from one of the other investors Kalaari Capital last month, the transaction was due NVP’s nod. Now, with NVP on board, Snapdeal has agreed to a non-binding letter of intent (LoI) for a merger with Flipkart.
Due diligence is scheduled to begin next week, with Flipkart executives expected to visit Snapdeal offices and warehouses. While Snapdeal officials declined to comment on the deal, Flipkart officials did not respond to calls made by DH.
The deal was long held up due to disagreement between stakeholders regarding Snapdeal’s valuation. Snapdeal, which was valued over $6 billion during its last funding round in February last year, is said to be valued at a meagre $1 billion through this deal.
As per regulatory filings, SoftBank owns over 30% in Snapdeal, while Nexus has roughly a 10% stake, and Kalaari holds 8% share in the firm. Further according to sources, Snapdeal founders would get about $25 million each, while NVP could get close to $100 million and stake in the merged/new entity. Kalaari could get about $70-80 million.
If completed, the deal would mark the rise of the country’s own representative in India’s ecommerce battlefield, which features deep-pocketed rivals Amazon and Alibaba.
SoftBank had on Wednesday said that it suffered a loss of $1 billion (Rs 6,500 crore) on its investment in Snapdeal during 2016-17, almost matching the money it put in the home-grown marketplace.
Meanwhile, reports have said that Snapdeal’s mobile wallet service Freecharge could be sold separately with players like Paytm and MobiKwik being in the fray.