- Reliance Retail announced recently that it raised $754 million from KKR and $1 billion from Silver Lake. These are the details.
Over the past year, Mukesh Ambani oversaw $24.8 billion in funding for the Reliance Jio telecommunications company and now the retail unit of his company is pursuing large rounds of funding.
Recently, it was announced that KKR & Co. will buy a $754 million stake in Reliance’s retail business. Through this investment, KKR will have a 1.28% stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., which values the retailer at about 4.2 trillion rupees ($57 billion). And this deal follows Silver Lake Partners’ $1 billion investment in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. for a 1.75% stake.
It is rumored that Ambani is offering a $20 billion stake in Reliance Retail Ventures. In India, Reliance Retail runs a chain of supermarkets, an online grocery store called JioMart, and fast-fashion outlets among several other businesses.
Key Quotes About Silver Lake Deal:
“I am delighted to extend our relationship with Silver Lake to our transformational efforts of building an inclusive partnership with millions of small merchants while providing value to Indian consumers across the country in the Indian retail sector. We believe technology will be key to bringing the much-needed transformation in this sector so that various constituents of the retail ecosystem can collaborate to build inclusive growth platforms. Silver Lake will be an invaluable partner in implementing our vision for Indian Retail.”
— Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing
Director, Reliance Industries
“We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Reliance with this investment. Mukesh Ambani and his team at Reliance have created an outstanding world leader in retail and technology through their courageous vision, commitment to societal benefits, innovation excellence and relentless execution. The success of JioMart in such a short time span, especially while India, along with the rest of the world, battles the COVID-19 pandemic, is truly unprecedented, and the most exciting growth phase has just begun. Reliance’s New Commerce strategy could become the disruptor of this decade. We are thrilled to have been invited to partner with Reliance in their mission for Indian Retail.”
— Egon Durban, Co-CEO and Managing Partner of Silver Lake
Key Quotes About KKR Deal
“I am pleased to welcome KKR as an investor in Reliance Retail Ventures as we continue our onward march to growing and transforming the Indian Retail ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. KKR has a proven track record of being a valuable partner to industry-leading franchises and has been committed to India for many years. We look forward to working with KKR’s global platform, industry knowledge and operational expertise across our digital services and retail businesses.”
— Mukesh Ambani
“We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Reliance Industries through this investment in Reliance Retail Ventures, which is empowering merchants of all sizes and fundamentally changing the retail experience for Indian consumers. Reliance Retail’s new commerce platform is filling an important need for both consumers and small businesses as more Indian consumers move to shopping online and the company offers tools for Kiranas to be a critical part of the value chain. We are thrilled to support Reliance Retail in its mission to become India’s leading omnichannel retailer and ultimately to build a more inclusive Indian retail economy.”
— Henry Kravis, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of KKR
