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Silver Lake picks 1.75 per cent stake in Reliance Retail for Rs 7,500 cr
9-September-2020

US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners has picked a 1.75 per cent stake in Reliance Retail for Rs 7,500 crore, the Indian firm said in a statement on Wednesday. The investment values Reliance Retail at Rs 4.21 lakh crore. The world's largest tech investor had previously invested in billionaire Mukesh Ambani's digital unit, Jio Platforms Ltd. Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India's largest, fastest-growing and most profitable retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide.

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

Commenting on the development, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, said: "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 the 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," he added.

Egon Durban, Co-CEO and Managing Partner of Silver Lake, said, "The success of JioMart in such a short time span, especially while India, along with the rest of the world, battles the 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."

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.