RIL clarifies on nature of investment in robotics firm Addverb

Reliance Industries on Wednesday clarified on report of its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) buying 54 per cent stake in domestic robotics firm Addverb Technologies, saying that the firm had made the aforesaid investment in Addverb out of its own funds.

"At the outset, we state that we are in complete compliance with the disclosure requirements under Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (LODR)," the Mukesh Ambani-led company said in a regulatory filing.

It also clarified that RRVL had acquired approximately 55 per cent stake in Addverb Technologies Private Limited (Addverb) in July 2021. "RRVL, the unlisted subsidiary of the Company, had made the aforesaid investment in Addverb out of its own funds. The acquisition did not require any disclosure under Regulation 30 of LODR," it further added.

Also Read: Reliance Retail buys 54% stake in domestic robotics firm Addverb for $132 mn

On Tuesday, Reliance Retail was said to acquire a 54 per cent stake in domestic robotics company Addverb for $132 million (about Rs 983 crore), reported news agency PTI citing a senior official of the firm.

Addverb Technologies co-founder and CEO Sangeet Kumar told PTI that the company will continue to operate independently and will use the funds received from Reliance to expand business overseas as well as set up one of the biggest robotic manufacturing facilities in Noida.

The company already has a manufacturing plant in Noida where it produces around 10,000 robots per annum. ''With this investment, Reliance will hold around 54 per cent stake in Addverb. They become the largest shareholder in the company. Reliance was already one of our esteemed clients, with whom we had co-created and delivered highly automated warehouses for their Jio-Mart grocery business. The comfort level and the trust factor were already in place, which led to this association,'' Kumar had said.

The strategic partnership with Reliance Retail will help us leverage 5G, battery technology through new energy initiatives, advances in material sciences (carbon fibre) to deliver more advanced and affordable robots, he had further added.

(With inputs from PTI)