Flipkart starts work on IPO, to hit Wall Street by 2018

India's e-commerce major Flipkart plans to hit Wall Street as it gears up for NASDAQ listing by 2018. The announcement comes amidst three valuation write-downs by global funds in recent months.

India’s largest online retailer, in yet another top-level management shakeup, named Kalyan Krishnamurthy as the new chief executive officer of Flipkart, with founder Binny Bansal moving in to a new position as the group CEO.

The rejig in management set-up comes close on the heels of large global funds like Morgan Stanely and Vanguard Group having marked down their valuations of the ecommerce major in their filings made to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

Going by the trend, if Flipkart does not see any meaningful upgrade on its valuation, then the rounding of funds would be at a cheaper valuation. This is likely to make existing investors anxious about their investments in the company.

Under pressure from its majority shareholder Tiger Global, Flipkart founders had to make way for a professional executive such as Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who is an old timer from Tiger Global itself.

Soon after assuming his new role, Binny Bansal in a mail told employees that one of its key areas would be to see IPO go through.

If the IPO goes through, it would be the first time that an Indian ecommerce company would be coming up with a mega issue on foreign shores.