Binny Bansal sells Rs 531 crore Flipkart shares to Walmart's FIT Holdings SARL

Binny Bansal, the co-founder of India's leading e-tailer Flipkart, sold around 54 lakh of his equity shares valued at Rs 531 crore to world's retail giant Walmart's Luxembourg entity FIT Holdings SARL, business intelligence platform Paper.vc said on Monday. "Walmart increased its equity holding in Flipkart by buying 5,39,912 shares of its erstwhile co-founder Binny Bansal for $76 million through its Luxembourg-based entity FIT Holdings SARL," the Paper.vc told news agency IANS.

In November, Bansal resigned following a probe into an alleged "serious personal misconduct", the firm's new parent Walmart said. Bansal, 37, had strongly denied the allegation, the American retail giant said in a statement.

His decision to step down follows an independent investigation done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart, even though the probe "did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions against Binny", it said.

Bansal, who is believed to be largely based in Singapore now, continues to hold a board seat in Flipkart and is a co-founder of xto10x Technologies, launched last year along with former Flipkart and McKinsey executive Saikiran Krishnamurthy. 

Bansal's resignation as the CEO of Flipkart Group was with immediate effect. He was serving as the Group CEO after Walmart's mega USD 16 billion investment in the Bengaluru-based company.

Sachin Bansal, the other co-founder (not related to Binny), had left Flipkart after selling his entire 5.5 per cent stake to Walmart as part of the deal.

Walmart's statement said the recent events "risked becoming a distraction for the company" and Binny had made a decision to step down.

The statement pointed out that Binny had been contemplating a transition for some time and that the company (Walmart) had been working together on a succession plan, which has now been accelerated.

(With PTI inputs)