Walmart primes for $2.5 billion spending spree in India

Walmart could spend more than $2.5 billion in India as it eyes the South Asian country’s e-commerce and payments markets’ growth prospects.

Why it matters: India is considered one of the world’s largest internet markets and it has become prime terrain for large retailers like Walmart and rival Amazon.

Driving the news: Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, which already owns a majority stake in India’s e-commerce juggernaut Flipkart, may spend about $1.5 billion to buy Flipkart’s shares from private equity firms Accel and Tiger Global, according to the Economic Times.

• The stake, which equates to around 5% collectively, would raise Walmart’s ownership in the company, the Economic Times reports, citing sources familiar.
• Walmart could also invest around $200 million to $300 million in PhonePe’s current funding round, TechCrunch says, citing sources familiar.
• Walmart, Tiger, Accel and PhonePe did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

Flashback: Walmart earlier this month paid the Indian government about $1 billion in taxes for PhonePe, a digital payments company that the company owns through Flipkart because PhonePe moved its headquarters to India from Singapore.

• Last month, PhonePe and parent Flipkart said they had fully separated, though Walmart will remain a majority shareholder in both companies.

Of note: PhonePe announced a $350 million cash infusion from General Atlantic this month, giving PhonePe a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.