Initial public offerings for Walmart’s (WMT.N) Flipkart marketplace and PhonePe digital payments platform could take a couple of years, according to a Walmart executive. “This is something we’re considering over the next couple of years,” said Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, at the company’s shareholder meeting near its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters on Thursday.
Bartlett indicated that Walmart might prioritize an initial public offering for PhonePe over Flipkart, despite Flipkart being a more established business. He highlighted that PhonePe, based in India, is “one of the largest payment platforms” in the country. PhonePe’s integration with India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which enables seamless money transfers across multiple banks without revealing account details, was also emphasized by Bartlett.
“There are numerous processes that need to be in place before we go public,” Bartlett said regarding PhonePe. He mentioned that the decision between listing on the Indian exchange versus other exchanges is still “under consideration” for the future IPO.
Bartlett projected that Walmart’s Flipkart marketplace and PhonePe operations in India could potentially become $100 billion businesses, driven by robust growth.
