New York-based investment group KKR & Co. will spend $750 million (55 billion rupees) in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., as India business owner Mukesh Ambani boosts an investment run that has raked in more than $20 billion for his technology business this year.
The Mumbai-based group said Wednesday KKR would get a 1.28% share in the India retail group through its Asia private equity funds - which gives the country's largest retailer a $57 billion market value.
The deal is the second investment by KKR in a Reliance subsidiary. The company acquired a $1.5 billion stake in the group's telecom unit Jio Platforms earlier this year.
According to KKR joint chief executive officer Henry Kravis, it is happy to deepen ties with Reliance through its partnership in Reliance Retail Ventures. "It empowers merchants of all sizes and fundamentally transforms the retail experience for India consumers," he was quoted as saying by stock-market-news service Benzinga.
Reliance Retail Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures, has more than 12,000 shops in India and added more than 1,700 branches in a $3.38 billion deal last month with Future Group - one of the country's biggest retailers.
Private equity company Silver Lake Partners recently spent $1 billion in the retail division governed by Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd. The 63-year old billionaire has set his sights from energy to retailing. India's billion-plus consumers have a growing appetite for smartphones and the internet.
Reliance has been on a share-selling run during the continuing international health crisis. The group's Jio platform unloaded a 33% stake to Facebook Inc., Intel Corp and Alphabet for $20 billion earlier this year. The India conglomerate offered $20 billion in shares in Reliance Retail to Amazon.com Inc. earlier this month. Ambani wants to sell 40% of the shares.
