Binny Bansal sells Flipkart stake to Tencent as China hardens border position

NEW DELHI: Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal has sold his stake worth $264 million (more than Rs 2,000 crore) in the homegrown e-commerce platform to Chinese Internet giant Tencent, at a time when the neighbouring country has once again hardened its positions along the Indian border.

The news about Bansal selling Flipkart stock to Tencent came at a time when US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, said on Saturday that China is hardening its positions along the Indian border. Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Austin said that China is taking aggressive and illegal approaches to the territories it claims in the South China Sea. "Further to the West, we see Beijing continuing to harden the position along the borders it shares with India," he noted.

Tencent bought Bansal's stake, via its European subsidiary called Tencent Cloud Europe BV, in October last year, and now holds 0.72 per stake in Walmart-owned Flipkart, according to media reports, which was later confirmed by reliable sources. Bansal now holds nearly 1.84 per cent stake in Flipkart. A query sent to Flipkart went unanswered.

India and China have been engaged in a border dispute for nearly two years. India also banned several Chinese apps and Internet platforms in the aftermath of the tense border standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Army Chief General Manoj Pande said last month that China seems to lack the intention to find a resolution to the border dispute at the Line of Actual Control, stressing that Indian troops continue to hold important positions along the LAC. IANS

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