Flipkart will pay out $700 million to ESOP holders

Walmart-owned ecommerce giant Flipkart will give cash payouts worth about $700 million to employee stock option holders as part of its separation from digital payment unicorn PhonePe, at a time when the firm looks to hire and retain talent.

"We are pleased to announce that employees, who are holders of Flipkart ESOPs (employee stock option plan), will receive a one-time discretionary cash payout as part of the transaction. This payout represents the value of the PhonePe holding within those Flipkart options," said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Flipkart's CEO in an internal email.

Moneycontrol first reviewed and reported on a copy of the mail.

According to Kalyan the payout will be at $43.67 per option which will reflect the market value of PhonePe.

"The new share price of Flipkart has been determined at $165.83 per option (previously $189.1), excluding the value of PhonePe," he said.

The employees who would be eligible for the buyback will receive a report and more details about the payout shortly. The number of employees who would benefit from the payout remains unclear, a source told Moneycontrol.

More recently, Flipkart and PhonePe announced full ownership separation as the latter prepared for an IPO.

The announcement comes ahead of PhonePe’s multi-million-dollar fundraising, which would be its largest.

Flipkart announced a partial spin-off of PhonePe to help the platform access dedicated, long-term investment to fund its growth ambitions. At the same time, in December 2020, PhonePe secured $700 million at a valuation of $5.5 billion from investors including Walmart.