Tiger Global sinks teeth into Flipkart, Snapdeal merger

Softbank is planning to invest up to $1.5 billion in the combined entity for a 15 per cent stake

US-based hedge fund Tiger Global is in talks with Japanese investor SoftBank to sell a part of its stake in Flipkart in exchange for a merger of struggling rival Snapdeal with India’s largest e-commerce company.

Tiger Global, the single largest investor in Flipkart, could divest a third of its shares in exchange for $1 billion from SoftBank. Tiger Global would thus recoup most of the money it had invested in Flipkart and still retain around a 20 per cent stake, sources said.

Since putting its key man Kalyan Krishnamurthy in charge of Flipkart last year, Tiger Global has rationalised costs