Reliance Industries’ retail unit bags $749m from ADIA

Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced that it will be receiving US$749 million from a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which would value RRVL at a pre-money equity valuation of more than US$58 billion.

ADIA’s investment will translate into a 1.2% equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail received US$1 billion from GIC, TPG. / Photo credit: Flickr

It comes shortly after the company secured US$1 billion from Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and global private equity firm TPG Capital. With this investment, RRVL has raised US$5.1 billion from leading global investors including Silver Lake, KKR, General Atlantic, Mubadala, GIC, TPG, and ADIA in less than four weeks, according to a statement.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates a retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores across India.

With its new commerce strategy, Reliance Retail has started the digitalization of small and unorganized merchants, which enables these sellers to use technology tools and a supply chain infrastructure to deliver services to their customers. It aims to expand the network to over 20 million of these merchants.

The retail arm also operates ecommerce platform JioMart, a joint venture with Reliance Industries digital subsidiary Jio Platforms. The fresh funds will help JioMart take on its biggest rivals Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in India.

“This investment is consistent with our strategy of investing in market-leading businesses in Asia linked to the region’s consumption-driven growth and rapid technological advancement,” said Hamad Shahwan Aldhaheri, executive director of the private equities department at ADIA.

Last week, Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala also agreed to invest US$853 million for a 1.4% equity stake in the retail division.