At a time when Walmart is reportedly set to buy a majority stake in Flipkart, the U.S. retail giant’s rival Amazon is pumping capital into its India operations.
The Seattle-based company has invested ₹2,600 crore in Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd. (Amazon.in), which runs a marketplace that assists sellers to sell their products online in India and globally.
Amazon India issued equity shares worth ₹2,600 crore to existing shareholders under ‘rights basis,’ according to regulatory documents filed by Amazon, which were sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc. A rights offering is an issue of rights to a company’s existing shareholders that entitles them to buy additional shares directly from the firm in proportion to their existing holdings, within a fixed time period, according to Investopedia.
The resolution for this capital infusion was passed by the board of directors of Amazon Seller Services on April 26. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has committed $5 billion to India, where e-commerce sales are expected to grow at a 30% compounded annual growth rate through FY 2027 and touch $200 billion of gross merchandise value, according to financial services firm Morgan Stanley. Last month Amazon Mr. Bezos said that Amazon.in is “the fastest growing marketplace in India.”
