PhonePe IPO Valuation Cut

Walmart===PhonePe, an Indian fintech firm backed by Walmart, is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) valuation between $9 billion and $10.5 billion. This valuation is a reduction from its last private market valuation of $12 billion in 2023. Walmart plans to trim its stake by about 12%, while Tiger Global Management and Microsoft intend to fully exit their investments. Walmart===PhonePe will not issue new shares in the offering, which is expected to raise $900 million to $1.05 billion. The company, which competes with Google===Google Pay and Paytm, filed for its IPO in September and targets completion by April, though the timeline is subject to market conditions. Walmart===PhonePe's losses widened to $158 million in the six months ended September 30, 2023, despite a 22% rise in revenue. Investors express concerns about Walmart===PhonePe's ability to monetize its large user base in India's low-margin payments market, which is influenced by the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) policy of no transaction fees.