Reliance Retail to receive $1b from Silver Lake

Reliance Retail, the subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited, today announced that it will be receiving US$1 billion from US-based investment firm Silver Lake for a 1.75% equity stake on a fully diluted basis.

Photo credit: Reliance Industries

The deal values Reliance Retail at US$57 billion pre-money, according to a statement. The cash infusion comes after Silver Lake invested US$1.35 billion in Reliance Industries’ digital services arm Jio Platforms earlier this year.

According to Reliance Retail, it’s operations in India has close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide.

The company aims to provide services to customers in the Indian retail sector by empowering farmers and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, as well as working with global and domestic companies as a preferred partner.

Through its “new commerce strategy,” it has started digitalizing small and unorganized merchants and is committed to expand this network of merchants to over 20 million.

The company reported a consolidated turnover of US$21.7 billion and a net profit of US$726.4 million for the year ended March 31 this year.

“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,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director at Reliance Industries Limited.

With more than US$60 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital, Silver Lake’s portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter, among others. It most recently invested in India’s edtech startup Byju’s, the second-highest valued startup in the country.