Just one month after finalizing its acquisition of a majority stake in Flipkart, Walmart is putting four of its top executives into key positions at the Indian e-Commerce marketplace, according to the Economic Times.
Emily McNeal, head of Walmart mergers and acquisitions, will join the Flipkart Group as SVP and Group CFO, according to an email sent to Flipkart employees by CEO Binny Bansal. Other Walmart executives moving to Flipkart are:
• Daniel De La Garza, coming on board as VP and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer;
• Grant Coad as General Counsel; and
• Dawn Ptak as VP and Group Controller.
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The executives will make the transfer by October, according to the email. McNeal, De La Garza and Coad will report to Bansal, but Ptak will report to McNeal, whose focus areas will be group strategy, M&A, IPO preparation, accounting and controls.
All four executives have extensive international experience: De La Garza is currently Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for Walmart in Central America, while Coad has been handling regulatory compliance for Walmart Canada. Ptak has been with Walmart China for more than seven years. McNeal was involved in the Flipkart acquisition discussions along with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
Walmart paid approximately $16 billion for its roughly 77% stake in Flipkart in May 2018. Other shareholders include Bansal, Tencent, Tiger Global and Microsoft Corp.
Indian retail is turning into a battle of the behemoths. Earlier this week, Amazon bought the Indian supermarket chain More for $580.35 million, and the e-Commerce giant launched a Hindi version of its mobile web site and app in early September.
For its part, Walmart is shedding other international assets, presumably to focus more attention and resources on India. In May 2018 Walmart announced it was selling the UK supermarket chain Asda to Sainsbury’s. In June, Walmart sold a majority stake in its Brazil operations to Advent International, although the retailer retains a 20% stake in the subsidiary.
