No Snapdeal sale to Flipkart for now as SoftBank fails to convince board

The Tokyo-based telecom and investment major holds the largest 33% stake in Snapdeal

SoftBank, which is trying to pull off the biggest consolidation in the Indian e-commerce ecosystem, again failed to convince the board of directors of Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, owner of Snapdeal, to sell the online marketplace to Flipkart. 

The Tokyo-based telecom and investment major holds the largest 33 per cent stake in Snapdeal.

According to three sources privy to the development, the meeting, which went on for more than three hours, was not able to reach a consensus as the board of directors, including Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, did not agree to the terms of the deal.

While SoftBank is making every effort to persuade other directors, especially the ones representing early stage investors Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, they are not agreeing to the deal.

While some sources said most of the directors did not agree to the terms of cash and stock deal, which included selling around 10 shares of Snapdeal for every one share of Flipkart, others said such an arrangement was not discussed. Till now SoftBank has not managed to bring on board Kalaari and Nexus to sell off their stake in Snapdeal as they think the valuation for Snapdeal being pegged is unreasonably low. Also, SoftBank Group Corp’s Lydia Bly Jett has joined the board of Jasper Infotech. 

SoftBank, which invested around $900 million in Snapdeal and is the major stakeholder in the company as well as digital payments platform Freecharge, has sent Jett as an additional director.

According to company documents sourced from Tofler, SoftBank Group’s chief operating officer Jonathan Bullock resigned from the board in February 2017 followed by the appointment of managing partner Kabir Misra on 10 March. Jett’s appointment is the third board movement from SoftBank to Snapdeal. The move comes at a time when the company is facing financial woes of its own.

Other than Snapdeal, Bullock had also stepped down from the boards of ANI Technologies, which owns and operates cab-hailing platform Ola and real estate portal Housing.com.

According to official documents, the Japanese major has two seats on the seven-member Jasper Infotech board. Other members include early investors Kalaari and Nexus. 

Other than the Snapdeal co-founders, Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Gupta is also on board. According to four sources privy to the developments, Kalaari and Nexus are confident of the company's present business plan and want it to head for an IPO in the next two years. 

According to sources, while Softbank is trying to sell its stake in Snapdeal, it has also assured the e-commerce company of giving close to $200 million so that it can go ahead with its business plans and head for an IPO. 

Then there is a question of valuation. Kalaari and Nexus are livid with the valuation Softbank is trying to sell Snapdeal at. While till December 2016, the Snapdeal’s valuation was pegged at a hefty $6.5 billion making it the second-most valuable Indian e-commerce firm after Flipkart, Softbank is apparently planning to sell it for $600 million-$800 million.

Not all of Snapdeal is loss-making. Its logitics arm Vulcan Express Private Limited and e-commerce management firm Unicommerce are either profitable or would be so in the days to come. Also, its wallet, Freecharge, is still the number two wallet player in the country.