Flipkart’s valuation has been cut by Morgan Stanley for the 2nd time this year. After it had marked down the value of its shares in Flipkart by 27% in March, the firm has again marked down its shares by 15.5%, valuing Flipkart at $9.39 billion.
Flipkart had last raised funds at a $15 billion valuation in 2015.
Morgan Stanley had picked up shares in Flipkart as a part of its series D round of funding in 2013, when it had raised $360 million in two tranches. It had also picked up additional shares when Flipkart had raised a massive $1 billion investment in August 2014. The company’s 2nd markdown comes close on the heels of two other investors, Fidelity and Valic, which had marked down the value of the shares by 20% last month.
Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal has claimed that these are theoretical valuations and his company’s true value can be ascertained only when it raised its next round of funding.
Flipkart, though, has had a hard couple of months. It has seen the exits of several its top people, and there have been rumours that it’ll be unable to raise money at the $15 billion valuation that it had last commanded. Just this week, in an apparent cost cutting move, Flipkart delayed the joining dates of its campus graduates from June to December.