KKR Intends to Invest Rs.5,500 Crore in Reliance Retail Ventures for 1.28% Equity

The global investment firm KKR is planning to invest Rs.5,500 crore in Reliance Retail for 1.28 percent equity share says Reliance Industries in a BSE filing. This turns to be the second investment made by KKR in a Reliance subsidiary after an Rs.11,367 crore investment made in Jio Platforms earlier this year. KKR's investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of Rs.4.21 trillion.

I a statement issued by RRVL, Mukesh Ambani states, “I am pleased to welcome KKR as an investor in Reliance Retail Ventures as we continue our onward march. KKR has a proven track record of being a valuable partner to industry-leading franchises and has been committed to India for many years."

Reliance Retail runs various business such as supermarket, cash and carry wholesaler, electronics chain store, fashion outlet, online grocery store JioMart. Further, the acquisition of Future Group's retail business has added close to 1,700 large stores to the existing 11,806 RIL stores in its retail segment and has increased the company's organized retail revenue market share by about five percent.
After Ambani raised about $20 billion selling the stakes of his technology venture to investors that include Google and Facebook, and he is repeating the same procedure in his retail business as well. Lately, Silver Lake had invested Rs.7,500 crore into Reliance Retail Ventures valuing the business to Rs.4.2 trillion.

Henry Kravis, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, KKR says, “We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Reliance Industries through this investment in Reliance Retail Ventures. Reliance Retail’s new commerce platform is filling an important need for both consumers and small businesses as more Indian consumers move to online shopping."

All the 13 investors, who had issued in a combined Rs 1.52 lakh crore in Jio Platforms, have been given an opportunity to explore investing in the retail unit.

However, Silver Lake and KKR, the other investors of Jio Platforms include Facebook, Google, private equity groups Vista and General Atlantic, and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. Alongside this, Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms estimates more than Rs.9 lakh crore of RIL valuation.