Walmart, Alphabet set to buy over 70% stake in Indian online retailer Flipkart

India’s largest online retailer Flipkart is set to sell more than 70 pecent stake to Walmart and Google’s parent Alphabet, in a deal which will value the company at $20 billion, reports the Times of India.

The deal would mark the largest investments in the country’s e-commerce sector and would make India the biggest emerging market where three of the largest global retailers, Walmart, Amazon and China’s Alibaba, would be pitted against each other.

The final shareholder agreements triggering India Inc’s largest M&A is expected to be signed over the weekend and a formal announcement is due mid-next week.

While Walmart is expected to get a 55-61 percent stake in Flipkart, Alphabet will pick up around 10 percent in Flipkart, bringing to an end of months of deal-making.

For Walmart, which has so far failed to make big inroads into markets outside the US, the deal could come as an opportunity to allocate resources in one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the world and also expand its retail operations in the country that have hitherto been restricted to the cash and carry segment.

Analysts predict that Walmart could also leverage its logistics, supply chain and retail sourcing experience to improve Flipkart’s operations for the company to compete better against its rival Amazon India.

Amazon, which was also in the race to acquire a substantial stake in Flipkart, did not find favour from most of the company investors even as Softbank rallied for the Jeff Bezos-led tech giant. The transaction will involve a bunch of Flipkart’s shareholders partially or completely selling their stakes to the Walmart-led group.