The wholesale cash and carry arm of Flipkart, Flipkart India Pvt., Ltd., has received a working capital credit line of Rs. 375 crores from private lending firm Axis Bank.
VCCircle reported, the online retail company has entered into a hypothecation agreement with the lending bank according to documents filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. A hypothecation agreement refers to the pledging of assets as collateral for a loan from a financial institution. The credit line was extended by Axis Bank in March this year.
The company, as per the filings, had previously raised a loan of Rs. 650 crores from Kotak Mahindra Bank that was later increased to Rs. 820 crores. They were also successful in securing a Rs. 300 crores credit line from HDFC Bank, which was increased to Rs. 453 crores afterward.
It was also previously reported the company, who was seeking an equity infusion at a valuation of $ 15 billion, would be raising close to $ 300 million in loans from Indian banks as external investment seemed like a long shot. Flipkart last raised $ 1.4 billion from Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings Ltd., eBay and software giant Microsoft Corp in April this year. Many media reports also suggest Japan’s leading firm SoftBank Group will also invest close to $ 2 billion in the company after the failed Flipkart and Snapdeal acquisition attempt.
The ecommerce giant Flipkart India registered a 42.8% rise in gross revenue at Rs. 13,177 crores for the financial year 2016, up from Rs. 9,226.5 crores registered in the previous year. The company also reported a decrease in their net loss to Rs. 544.3 crores in 2016 from Rs. 828.2 crores in the previous year. The financial report for 2017 has not been registered yet.
At present, Flipkart is gearing up to fight the rival global ecommerce giant Amazon. Amazon recently got the governments approval to invest $ 500 million in the food and processing industry in India. Apart from Amazon, Groffer and BigBasket have also received the green light from the government for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the food and processing industry.