Abu Dhabi's Mubadala may invest up to $1 billion in Reliance Retail: report
30 Sep 2020
It looks like the whole world wants to invest in Reliance Industries’ online-retail hybrid with reports of Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co engaged in talks to invest up to $1 billion in RIL’s retail outfit.
Global funds, starved of investment opportunities elsewhere, are flocking to Reliance Industries, raising investor interest in the Indian company surges.
Reliance Retail has contracted around $1.8 billion of investment in the past few weeks from KKR & Co and Silver Lake Partners.
Global investors have collectively pumped more than $20 billion into the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries’ digital business Jio Platforms since April this year, in order to the retail-online hybrid, which has nearly 12,000 stores and sells everything from groceries and electronics to fashion and shoes.
Mubadala invested around $1.2 billion in Jio Platforms and its executives have held extensive talks in recent weeks with Reliance for investing in its retail venture, reports citing sources familiar with the talks said.
Reliance is likely to announce a few more investments into its retail unit, and those will be from investors who recently invested in its digital arm, reports cited sources aware of the matter as saying.
Meanwhile, reports said Japan's SoftBank Group has also expressed interest in investing in Reliance Retail while some reports said Amazon and Reliance have also been in talks, but there was no certainty of a deal on an investment in Reliance Retail.
Ambani has lost out in its push for investments in its retail business after Mukesh Ambani secured a deal with the country’s largest retail chain Future Retail It is still not knows if Amazon is seeking a stake in Reliance Retail.