Reliance Industries' RRVL to acquire METRO Cash & Carry India for Rs 2,850 crore

Reliance Retail Ventures, a subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL), will fully acquire the food wholesaler METRO Cash & Carry for a total of Rs 2,850 crore. The transaction, however, is subject to regulatory and other closing conditions and is likely to materialize by March 2023. 

With this, Reliance Retail will get access to METRO India’s network of stores in prime locations across cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore, Meerut, Lucknow, Nasik, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Vijayawada, Tumakuru, Ghaziabad, and Hubballi. 

Reliance Retail will also get access to a large base of registered kirana stores, institutional customers, and a strong supplier network as part of the deal. The RIL subsidiary will also leverage METRO India’s supply chain networks, technology platforms, and sourcing capabilities to serve customers and small merchants, as per an exchange filing. With this, RRVL will also get access to METRO Cash & Carry Indias’ HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, and caterers) network of customers. 

Commenting on the deal, Reliance Retail Ventures Director Isha Ambani said, “METRO India is a pioneer and key player in the Indian B2B market and has built a solid multi-channel platform delivering strong customer experience. We believe that METRO India’s healthy assets combined with our deep understanding of the Indian merchant/kirana ecosystem will help offer a differentiated value proposition to small businesses in India.”

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The acquisition of METRO Cash & Carry India will add another feather to RRVL’s cap that has other omnichannel businesses such as JioMart, Ajio, Netmeds, and Zivame across grocery, apparel, pharmacy, electronics, lingerie, home and furnishing, beauty and personal care. RRVL had a consolidated turnover of around Rs 1,99,704 crore and net profit of around Rs 7,055 crore for the year ended March 31, 2022. 

METRO Cash & Carry started its India operations in 2003 and introduced the cash-and-carry business format in India. The international food wholesaler has 31 large format stores across 21 cities in the country with around 3,500 employees. As of FY22, METRO India generates sales worth 29.8 million euros. 

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Hailing the deal as a means to accelerate the company’s growth in the country, METRO AG CEO Dr. Steffen Greubel noted, “With METRO India, we are selling a growing and profitable wholesale business in a very dynamic market at the right time. We are convinced that in Reliance we have found a suitable partner who is willing and able to successfully lead METRO India into the future in this market environment.” 

He added, “This in one hand will benefit both our customers and our employees, for whose loyalty and performance we are very grateful, and on the other hand will enable METRO to focus on accelerating growth in the remaining country portfolio.”

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