Mumbai: The American retail giant Walmart is in discussions with the Tata group for a potential large stake purchase, for an investment worth $25 billion in the latter’s ‘super app’, reports say. The ‘super app’ aims to create digital services behemoth offering a wide range of products in the retail space.
According to the reports, the app could be launched as a joint venture between Tata and Walmart, leveraging on the synergies between Tata’s e-commerce business and Flipkart— Walmart’s e-commerce unit. A new digital platform business is proposed is also known to have been proposed in the talks, which will be run by Tata-Walmart together. There could be more foreign investors roped in the project too.
If the deal fructifies, it will be the country’s largest deal in the retail space ever, eclipsing Walmart’s own purchase of 66 per cent stake in Flipkart for $16 billion in May 2018.
Bloomberg also reported that the Tata group is in talks with potential investors for stakes in its digital platform.
Tata Cliq, StarQuik, Tata Sky, and Croma are the Tata group’s e-commerce platforms for selling various retail products. The promoter entity of the super app business, which is likely to be launched in December or January, will have all the retail businesses of the Tata group merged into one channel.