Walmart International Q4 business buoyed by Flipkart

Bentonville, Arkansas headquartered retail giant Walmart reported a 5.5% increase in net sales year-on-year in the fourth quarter of financial year 2020-21 for its international business. The international business which grew to $34.9 billion, was led by Flipkart and Walmart’s businesses in Mexico and Canada, the company said in its earnings report. 

Walmart holds a majority stake in Indian ecommerce player Flipkart. 

Operations from ecommerce contributed to 18%. The US ecommerce sales for Walmart grew 69% for the quarter.

During the previous quarter, Walmart International CEO Judith Mckenna had said that India continues to be among the priority international markets for Walmart. In 2020, Flipkart Group acquired the business of Walmart India to launch its business-to-business marketplace, Flipkart Wholesale.

Reporting its earnings for the quarter, Walmart reported total revenues of $152.1 billion for the quarter, a 7.3% increase from the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The company reported annual revenues of $560 billion, a growth of $35 billion from the previous financial year.  

The company also said that it plans on investing $14 billion for the financial year 2021-22 to build supply chain capacity and bring in automation for future sales and earnings growth. For the coming financial year, Walmart also predicted a decline in net sales and operating income due to proposed divestments by the company.

As part of the earnings announcement, the company has announced a $20 billion share repurchase program. For the 2020-21 fiscal, the company returned $8.7 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, said the report.