Walmart to build massive India warehouse with billionaire Gautam Adani – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Flipkart Online Services Pvt signed a pact with tycoon Gautam Adani’s conglomerate to help set up one of India’s largest logistics hubs and a data center, as the Walmart-owned e-commerce firm gears up to battle Amazon for a bigger slice of the local market.
The tie-up marks the entry of Adani, India’s fastest-rising billionaire, into the three-way fight for domination of the onling shopping space, which is estimated to generate $200 billion in sales by 2026 — turbocharged by pandemic restrictions keeping people away from stores.
Up against the Flipkart-Adani alliance is not just Amazon, but also Reliance Industries Ltd, the conglomerate owned by Mukesh Ambani, India and Asia’s richest man.
Adani Logistics Ltd, a unit of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd, will build a 534,000-square-feet fulfillment center in its upcoming logistics hub at Mumbai and lease it to Flipkart, according to a joint statement Monday from the two companies.
Expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2022, this warehouse — roughly the size of 11 football fields — can store 10 million units of inventory, the firms said.
Bengaluru-based Flipkart will also develop its third data center at the AdaniConnecX facility in Chennai to help the e-commerce company keep its data within India, according to the statement.
Adaniconnex Private Ltd is a joint venture between US’s EdgeConneX Inc and Adani Enterprises Limited, the conglomerate’s flagship listed unit.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
Potential size
The new fulfillment center being planned is likely to be larger in area than the ones operated by Amazon in India so far, underscoring the potential size of the market.
“We see this as a great opportunity to serve Flipkart’s physical as well as digital infrastructure needs,” said Karan Adani, chief executive officer of Adani Ports.
The partnership is another sign of Adani’s rising clout, his coal mining-to-data centers conglomerate has rapidly expanded and diversified across sectors, adding $24 billion to his net worth this year.
Riding a massive rally in his companies’ shares, Adani’s wealth has jumped to almost $58 billion — the fastest rise in wealth globally.