India’s Flipkart Valuation May Reach $40 Billion With A Possible Abu Dhabi $500 Million Investment

ADQ, the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, could invest $500 million in India-based Flipkart, Bloomberg reported.

Flipkart, which is backed by Walmart, will be looking at an initial public offering (IPO) next year, according to Bloomberg. ADQ, which is the oil-rich emirate’s most recent state investment company, is exploring the possibility of injecting funds into the eCommerce company.

In that case, Flipkart would end up valued somewhere between $35 billion and $40 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Flipkart is seeking to raise around $3 billion, and the company may end up boosting that amount to around $3.75 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources.

SoftBank Group Corp., Singapore’s GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are among the companies Flipkart is looking to woo for the aforementioned $3 million, Bloomberg reported.

That group also includes the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the emirate, according to Bloomberg.

ADQ was formerly known as the Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company, and it has been active in the Middle East investing game since it started in 2018, Bloomberg reported. The fund oversees around $110 billion in assets, which would make it around the third-largest Abu Dhabi state investor. That puts it after ADIA, which has around $700 billion, and Mubadala Investment Co., which oversees around $230 billion.

ADQ has also been a prolific dealmaker, with recent deals including buys in agricultural trader Louis Dreyfus Company and Egyptian drugmaker Amoun Pharmaceutical, according to Bloomberg.

Flipkart’s IPO will see it trying to break into the U.S., PYMNTS reported in May. The company has rivals, including Amazon and India-based Reliance Retail. It’s plans for a U.S. IPO also have a backup with the option of going public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). A SPAC typically raises money through an IPO, and then has cash to buy out a company with existing operations.