Silver lake to invest Rs7,500 cr in Reliance Retail for a 1.75% stake

The investment values RRVL at a pre-money equity value of Rs4.21 lakh crore. Silver Lake’s investment will translate into a 1.75 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis, RIL stated in a release.

This marks the second major investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance Industries subsidiary after the $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India's largest and fastest growing retail business claiming close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000-odd stores nationwide. 

“Reliance Retail is following an inclusive strategy serving millions of customers by empowering millions of farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and working closely with global and domestic companies as a preferred partner, to deliver immense benefits to Indian society, while protecting and generating employment for millions of Indians,” Reliance Industries stated in a release.

Reliance Retail, through its `New Commerce strategy’, has also started a transformational digitalisation of small and unorganised merchants to form an expanding the network of over 20 million merchants, helping them benefit from the use of technology tools and efficient supply chain infrastructure to deliver a superior value proposition to their customers, it added.

“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, said.

“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

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, said.

With more than $60 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a focus on the world’s great tech and tech-enabled opportunities, Silver Lake is the global leader in large-scale technology investing. 

Its other investments include Airbnb, Alibaba, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter and numerous other global technology leaders.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Reliance Retail and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsels. 

Latham & Watkins and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co acted as legal counsels for Silver Lake.