Ahead of Walmart-Flipkart deal, Amazon pumps Rs 2,600 Cr into its Indian business

Before Flipkart could see the money flowing from Walmart, Amazon has pumped in Rs 2,600 crore into its Indian business.

Amazon India secured a fund infusion of Rs 2,600 crore from its Singapore based group entity, Amazon Corporate Holdings Private Limited and Mauritius based Amazon.com.incs Limited, filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC) showed.

Amazon India run by Amazon Seller Services Private Limited issued 260 crore equity shares having a face value of Rs 10 each to both the above mentioned companies. The filings revealed that the fund infusion happened on April 26, 2018 – a time when both Walmart and Amazon were reportedly in a race to buy Flipkart.

The recent fund infusion into Amazon India will help create a bulwark in its fight with Flipkart that is reportedly going to secure billions of dollars from Amazon’s biggest rival, Walmart.

Earlie, Amazon had pumped Rs 1,950 crore into its India business in January this year. Amazon Seller Services, posted a 41 percent rise in FY17 revenue to Rs 3,128 crore, according to filings before the Registrar of Companies.

The fresh funds will provide a further boost to Amazon India. The company has been aggressively investing in expanding its infrastructure and adding solutions to enhance consumer and seller experience.

Amazon’s International losses jumped 29 percent to $622 million for the quarter ending March 2018, as against $481 million for the corresponding period in the previous year. The web retailer’s year-on-year losses from its global business continue to rise largely due to its India investments.

According to a recent Times of India report, Amazon’s CFO Brian Olsavsky had said that the ecommerce giant will continue pumping capital despite high losses. The report quotes him, “We will continue to invest in India where we are seeing great progress with both sellers and also customers. And we like the momentum we have seen there. The Prime programme started in the first year in India grew faster than any Prime programme we have seen in other countries. We are adding local and video content. We are rolling out devices there, and we are seeing Indian developers developing skills for Alexa. It is important to us that they all are still delighting customers and growing to the best of their ability.”