Reliance Retail adds Rs 47,265 crore to war chest in fight against Amazon, Walmart

Reliance Retail declared that it has raised Rs 47,265 crore in the recent round of stake sale. At the end of the partner induction and fundraise exercise, Reliance Retail has offloaded 10.09 per cent stake over two months, the company stated in a statement on Thursday.

"Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) have completed the current phase of partner induction and fundraise exercise for RRVL. RRVL has received cumulative subscription amount of Rs 47,265 crore from the following financial partners and allotted 69,27,81,234 equity shares to them," Reliance Retail said.

Source: Reliance Retail

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Reliance Retail closed nine deals with eight investors between September 25 and November 9. The investors included Silver Lake, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, GIC, TPG, General Atlantic and PIF. Silver Lake made two investments in the Mukesh Ambani-led retail company.

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Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Reliance Retail and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsels. Bank of America Securities, acting as additional financial advisor, advised on the process as well as transaction structuring.

"We are proud to have such strong and reputed partners in RRVL. We feel honoured by the phenomenal interest shown by investors in our business and look forward to working with our partners to benefit from their experience and global connectivity. With our focus on New Commerce, we are committed to playing a transformational role in the Indian retail sector by empowering millions of merchants and micro, small and medium enterprises," said  Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited.

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Reliance Retail has been expanding its footprint in the brick-and-mortar as well as online retail segments in face of challenges from Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. The company has been facing some hiccups in completing its deal with Kishore Biyani-led Future Group for the latter's retail, wholesale, logistic and warehousing assets. The hold-up is due to Amazon's interference on basis of an arbitration award by a Singapore-based panel.

As online retail saw growth on the back of coronavirus pandemic, Reliance Retail entered the segment with its JioMart in May, challenging players including BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon and Flipkart.

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