Walmart-Tata Retail Deal - Mr. Himanshu Nayyar, YES SECURITIES

News - A potential deal between Walmart and Tata's for a large stake in the upcoming Tata Superapp is expected to be a gamechanger in the retail space in India which has become a three-way fight between Reliance, Amazon and the Walmart-owned Flipkart. It would no doubt strengthen Walmart's positioning significantly against its peers by giving it access to a strong portfolio of established brands like Tata Salt, Tata Tea, Titan, Tanishq, Westside and platforms like Tata Cliq and Croma. The brands can also do well given the distribution capabilities of Flipkart.

Our view - The high valuation being talked about for the deal makes us wonder about the need for Walmart to do a large equity infusion in Tata given it already has a strong platform in Flipkart and can achieve these objectives by entering into a normal business tie-up. But if this were to go through, it would indicate a more strategic intent from Walmart to partner with a trusted brand to drive its India business ambitions which might also include a merger of Flipkart with the Tata Platform in the long term. It might also be necessary for Walmart in case Amazon and Reliance Retail decide to join hands.

Source : Equity Bulls

Keywords