Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. is offering to sell 40 per cent stake in its Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) to Amazon.com Inc. for a whopping amount of $20 billion, a BloombergQuint report said on Thursday, which cited a source familiar with the matter.
Amazon has held talks about investing in Indian major’s retail business and expressed interest in negotiating a potential deal, the report said.
If the deal becomes a success then it will put Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani on the same side of the e-commerce retail market in India, the report said, adding that a deal big as this would be the ‘biggest ever in India as well as for Amazon’.
Meanwhile, Reliance Industries issued a clarification in a BSE filing on Thursday evening, in which the company said, “We would like to reiterate that as a policy, we do not comment on media speculation and rumours and we cannot confirm or deny any transaction which may or may not be in the works. Our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis.”
“We have made and will continue to make necessary disclosures in compliance with our obligations under Securities Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015 and our agreements with the stock exchanges,” it added.
The oil-to-telecom company has already raised $20 billion earlier this year after it sold stakes in its technology venture, Jio Platforms Ltd., to major global investors including Facebook, Google, Silver Lake and others, report said.
Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India’s largest, fastest growing retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its about 12,000 stores nationwide.
On Wednesday, RIL announced that US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners will invest Rs 7,500 crore for 1.75 per cent stake in its RRVL.
Late last month, Reliance acquired the retail and logistics businesses of Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore to boost its retail vertical.
Shares of Reliance Industries jumped 8.45 per cent to a record high of Rs 2,343.90 on the BSE during the day. It ended at Rs 2,314.65, up by Rs 153.40 or 7.10 per cent.
(Additional input from agencies)