Reliance Retail completes Rs 47,265 cr fundraise from 10.09% stake sale

The investors include high-profile private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Thursday said it has completed the sale of about 10 per cent stake in its retail unit to a clutch of foreign investors for Rs 47,265 crore.

Since September 25, the company has sold 10.09 per cent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) to private equity firms Silver Lake Partners, KKR, GIC, TPG and General Atlantic, as well as sovereign wealthfunds Mubadala, ADIA and PIF.

"RRVL has received cumulative subscription amount of Rs 47,265 crore from the following financial partners and allotted 69.27 crore equity shares to them," the company said in a statement.

Silver Lake Partners bought 2 per cent stake in two tranches for Rs 9,375 crore while KKR invested Rs 5,550 crore for 1.19 per cent interest.

GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (AIDA) each bought 1.18 per cent for Rs 5,512.50 crore. The UAE's Mubadala bought 1.33 per cent stake for Rs 6,247.50 crore. Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, bought 2.04 per cent stake for Rs 9,555 crore.

Besides, General Atlantic invested Rs 3,675 crore for 0.78 per cent stake and TPG put in Rs 1,837.50 crore for 0.39 per cent interest.

Reliance Retail Ltd, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India's largest, fastest-growing retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls at its 12,000 stores across the country. Its business includes supermarkets, consumer electronics chain stores, cash and carry wholesale business, fast-fashion outlets, and online grocery store JioMart.

The investments equip Reliance Retail with funds to compete in both offline and online formats as well as giving ammunition for battle against rivals such as Walmart-owned e-commerce company Flipkart and Amazon.

The new funding came weeks after Reliance acquired the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehouse business of Future Group for an enterprise value of Rs 24,173 crore to consolidate its dominant market positioning in offline retail.

The deal however is being challenged by US e-commerce giant Amazon, which had taken a stake in Future's unlisted entity.

Earlier, Reliance raised an unprecedented Rs 1.52 lakh crore for Jio Platforms, the group's telecom and digital services company, from investors such as Facebook, Intel and Google.

The oil-telecom-to-retail conglomerate intends to divest minority stakes in its digital and retail businesses, and hold initial public offering for each within five years.

Reliance Retail in May this year launched JioMart, an e-commerce venture, to connect mom-and-pop stores, called Kirana, with consumers.

Isha Mukesh Ambani, Director of RRVL, said the company looks forward to working with its partners after the "phenomenal interest" shown by them.

"With our focus on new commerce, we are committed to playing a transformational role in the Indian retail sector by empowering millions of merchants and micro, small and medium enterprises," she said.

Isha is the daughter of the richest Indian, Mukesh Ambani.