Tata Group may buy a 50% stake in e-grocer BigBasket for $1b, sources say

The transaction could potentially see BigBasket selling off a 50% stake for roughly US$1 billion, the people added. A separate source also said that Chinese internet titan Alibaba is expected to divest all of its roughly 26% stake in the Bengaluru-based company.

“While the talks have been ongoing for some time, it is still work in progress as far as the specifics go. It may eventually not lead to a transaction at all,” one of the people noted.

Executives from Tata Group told The Economic Times that the company plans to make the acquisition through its digital arm Tata Digital. They added that the BigBasket buy is just “step one” of other similar partnerships it looks to ink to “scale its digital presence.”

The transaction is expected to be finalized in a couple of weeks, according to the sources.

Just last month, it was reported that US retail giant Walmart was in discussions to invest up to US$25 billion into the Tata Group in exchange for a large stake in the Indian conglomerate’s proposed super app. The reported app is expected to combine all of Tata Digital’s consumer services into a single platform.

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News of the share sale comes after a slew of international investors, including Facebook and Google, poured billions into Tata’s rival Reliance Industries.