Reliance Retail to Receive $1-Billion Investment From Silver Lake Partners

Reliance Industries said on Wednesday US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners will invest $1.02 billion (roughly Rs. 7,489 crores) in its retail business, helping the Mukesh Ambani-controlled company widen its lead as India's biggest retailer.

The move also sets the stage for a three-way battle between Asia's richest man, Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart to rope in the Indian middle class customer, many of whom are newly adopting online purchases of food and groceries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May, Reliance launched online grocery service JioMart. It has been aggressively building its retail presence through acquisitions, moving beyond its mainstay oil and gas business.

Silver Lake will get a 1.75 percent stake in Reliance Retail, giving the business a pre-money equity value of Rs. 4,21,000 crores, Reliance said. Powered by Reliance's Jio tech platform, the unit owns retail businesses as varied as grocery stores and fashion chains, and operates close to 12,000 stores.

"The real competition is going to be between Amazon, Walmart and Reliance," said Harminder Sahni of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors. "Walmart is self-funded and Amazon is too, so the company to bet on now is Reliance."

Reliance, which has been on a fund-raising spree, saw its share price rise as much as 1.5 percent in a weak Mumbai market.

Silver Lake, whose portfolio includes stakes in Airbnb and Twitter, has previously invested in Reliance's digital business as part of a funding round that saw the Indian company raise more than $20 billion (roughly Rs. 146,857 crores) from investors including Facebook and Alphabet's Google.

KKR is in advanced talks to invest at least $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7341 crores) in Reliance Retail, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reliance declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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