Walmart to Sell 12% of PhonePe Stake in $900M-$1.05B IPO
Walmart will sell 50.7 million shares, reducing its PhonePe stake by about 12% in the fintech’s IPO targeting a $9 billion to $10.5 billion valuation. It could raise $900 million to $1.05 billion, with no new shares issued and exits by Tiger Global and Microsoft.
1. IPO Valuation and Structure
PhonePe has set its IPO valuation range between $9 billion and $10.5 billion, planning to raise $900 million to $1.05 billion through a fully secondary offering without issuing new shares.
2. Walmart and Investor Stake Sales
Walmart will offload 50.7 million shares, reducing its stake by about 12%, while Tiger Global and Microsoft will exit their positions entirely.
3. Market Position and Competition
The listing would be India’s second-largest fintech IPO after Paytm’s $20 billion debut, with Paytm’s market capitalization now at $7.1 billion and PhonePe processing nearly 10 billion of 21.7 billion UPI transactions in January.
4. Financial Performance and Monetization Challenges
Despite 22% revenue growth to 39.18 billion rupees for the six months ended September 30, PhonePe’s losses widened to 14.44 billion rupees, raising concerns over its low-margin payments business and ability to monetise its user base.