After exiting Flipkart, Binny Bansal seeks $100 mn payout from Walmart: Report

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, who abruptly resigned as group chief executive officer recently following an investigation into personal misconduct on his part, is seeking a cash payout of $100 million from US retail giant Walmart, a media report said, citing two people in the know.

As per his earlier contract, Bansal was eligible to receive a payout worth $850 million, which is for over half of his 4-4.5% stake in Flipkart, after August 2020. However, he is now seeking an immediate cash payment of about $100 million while the remainder amount would be processed after August 2020. Bansal is expected to keep the rest of his stock after the 2020 payout, business daily Mint reported, citing the above-mentioned persons.

The report further said that Bansal will use the money from the payout to invest in startups. One investment that he has already zeroed in on is xto10x, a consulting platform founded by his former colleague Saikiran Krishnamurthy, who was previously heading Flipkart’s supply chain division, the Mint report added.

After the investigation and subsequent media coverage around his resignation, Bansal plans to shift from Bengaluru to a foreign country, the report said.

Queries sent to Walmart and Bansal did not elicit an immediate response at the time of publishing this report.

Bansal resigned from the e-commerce company last month following an independent probe into allegations of ‘serious personal misconduct’. He had denied the allegations.

“While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation. Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign,” an official statement from Walmart and Flipkart had said.

He had been appointed group CEO in January last year and had previously held the roles of chief executive officer and chief operating officer.

“The allegations left me stunned and I strongly deny them,” Bansal said. He added that he would continue to be a large shareholder in the company and serve on its board.

After Bansal’s exit, chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy took the helm at Flipkart and its subsidiaries including fashion portals Myntra and Jabong, and payment wallet PhonePe.

An earlier report by The Economic Times said that Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan, who is likely resign from the company by January or February next year, is also currently in negotiations with Walmart over the conditions of his exit, especially the $20-25 million worth of stock options he is entitled to.

Sachin Bansal, the Flipkart co-founder who made an estimated $1 billion when his firm was acquired by Walmart, plans to launch a new venture in two emerging sectors—agri-tech and fintech, a recent report by The Economic Times stated. Bansal will set up a holding company from where he will manage his upcoming startups as well as his investments. The celebrated entrepreneur has hired his IIT-Delhi alumni Ankit Agarwal as a partner and founding employee at the new entity, the report added.

Sachin exited Flipkart in May this year after selling his entire stake in the company to Walmart, whose acquisition closed in August this year. He held about 5.10% stake in the company he founded, pocketing about $1 billion after the sale. The US-based retailer had announced its decision to buy 77% of the company for $16 billion in May.

Sachin Bansal had launched Flipkart in 2008 along with Binny Bansal.