Morgan Stanley lowers Flipkart's valuation at under USD 10 bn

New Delhi, May 27 () Signalling a tough road ahead for Flipkart, a mutual fund managed by

Morgan Stanley

has marked down the value of its shares in the Indian eCommerce major by 15.5 per cent, valuing it at under USD 10 billion. The successive markdown comes at a time when its American rival Amazon is aggressively gaining traction in the burgeoning Indian eCommerce market. A number of investors like

Fidelity Investments

and T Rowe Price have also made similar mark downs of the company, which was considered as the poster child of Indian e-commerce industry. According to a US SEC filing, Morgan Stanley has marked the value of their Flipkart shares at USD 87.9 per share as of March 2016 from USD 103.9 per share as of December 2015. The December value was lower by over 23 per cent from USD 135.8 per share as of September last year. The markdown brings down the valuation of Flipkart to under USD 10 billion. According to reports, the Bengaluru- based firm had raised capital in July last year at a valuation of over USD 15 billion. Comments could not be obtained from Flipkart as emailed query remained unanswered. Morgan Stanley had picked up stake in Flipkart in 2013. According to reports, Flipkart has been facing funding crunch and falling valuations. It has also deferred joining dates for campus hires from IIM Ahmedabad and IITs citing restructuring of its businesses. SR RKL MR