Reliance Industries said on Wednesday US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners would buy a 1.75 per cent stake in its retail arm for Rs 7,500 crore ($1.02 billion), as the conglomerate bolsters its retail presence in the country. Reliance Industries, controlled by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, has been aggressively building its retail business as it looks to attract potential investors over the next few quarters.
Silver Lake's investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore, the company said in a regulatory filing.
In a rapid expansion into the country's largely unorganised retail sector, Reliance Industries in August bought the retail and wholesale business and the logistics and warehousing business of Future Group for $3.38 billion.
In May, Reliance Industries launched JioMart, an online grocery service in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon's local unit and Walmart's Flipkart in the huge Indian market.
Silver Lake, whose portfolio of companies includes Airbnb and social media firm Twitter Inc, has previously invested in Reliance Industries' digital business as part of a fund-raising spree by Reliance that saw the conglomerate raise more than $20 billion from investors including Facebook Inc and Alphabet's Google.
Shares of Reliance rose as much as 1.5 per cent after the announcement in a Mumbai market that was down 0.5 per cent as of 9:30 am.
($1 = Rs 73.7850)
