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Some key changes are learnt to have been carried out to e-commerce giant Flipkart’s board recently.
The number of directors is being expanded to 11 from the existing nine following negotiations between Walmart and Flipkart’s minority shareholders on the future direction of the company.
Independent directors
Information sourced from paper.vc , a business intelligence platform, indicates that these two new directors are designated as independent directors.
As of now, the board consists of three representatives from Walmart including Steuart Lawrence Walton; four independent directors including Lee Jared Fixel, formerly of Tiger Global; and founder nominee Binny Bansal, who owns 5.5 million shares in the company. James Gordon Mitchell is a nominee from Tencent. These are per the filings in Singapore by Flipkart’s holding company on September 20.
Analysts tracking the company say that after making changes in the constitution of the board, there is a possibility of Flipkart’s CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy being elevated to the board. There could also be changes in the senior management team reporting to Krishnamurthy, analysts said.
Flipkart did not respond to an email query about the changes to the board.
Walmart had bought a 77 per cent stake in Flipkart for $16 billion last year.
Annual sale’s success
Meanwhile, in a press statement, Flipkart claimed that it had clocked 70 billion views in the six days of its Big Billion Days annual sale, where huge discounts are offered across a range of products. There was an almost 50 per cent growth in the number of new customers compared with the previous year, it added.
More that 50 per cent of Flipkart Plus shoppers are from tier-2 cities and beyond. Sales from tier-3 cities grew 100 per cent year-on-year.
Over 40 per cent of transacting sellers during the sale were from tier-2 cities and beyond. The share of transactions via Flipkart’s credit options increased 70 per cent, the statement said.
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