Flipkart Faces Further Markdown From Investors Fidelity And Valic

Ecommerce major Flipkart’s valuation took another beating as two of its mutual fund investors reportedly marked down the value of their holdings in the company.

According to an ET report, mutual fund Valic has marked down the valuation of Flipkart shares from $108.04 (May end quarter) to $95.84 (August end quarter), a decrease of 11.3%.

On the other hand, Fidelity has marked down the valuation of its Flipkart shares from $84.29 per share assigned to them at the end of May to $81.55 per share for the August-ended quarter. Mutual fund investor Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II fund had marked-up the valuation of its Flipkart shares marginally by nearly 3% to $84.29 per share from $82 in July.

Flipkart’s valuation is currently pegged between $8.7 Bn to $10.25 Bn because of the markdown. Valic and Fidelity had picked up shares in Flipkart as a part of its series D round of funding in 2013, when Flipkart had raised $360 Mn in two tranches. In April, it had, along with another investor Valic Co., marked down the stake in Flipkart by 20%. Earlier, Fidelity and Valic Co. had marked down their holdings in the company by 24% and 12%, respectively, in the previous quarter.

The markdown mayhem for the ecommerce giant started in February 2016 when Morgan Stanley marked down Flipkart shares by 27%. Later in April 2016, a US-based mutual fund managed by T.Rowe Price marked down its shares in by 15%. T Rowe Price had invested about $100 Mn in Flipkart in December 2014, when the firm raised $700 Mn funding.

The trend continues when, earlier this week, Softbank Group Corp reportedly marked down close to $555 Mn in two of its Indian investments, cab hailing firm Ola and ecommerce marketplace Snapdeal, as per its six monthly earnings report, ending September 2016.