KKR to Invest Rs 5550 Cr in Reliance Retail Ventures

Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced that global investment firm KKR will invest Rs 5,550 crore into RRVL, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries.

The investment by KKR values RRVL at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crores and with this its investment will translate into a 1.28 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.

Notably, this is the second investment by KKR in a Reliance Industries subsidiary after the Rs 11,367 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.

Commenting on the investment by KKR, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, said, "I am pleased to welcome KKR as an investor in Reliance Retail Ventures as we continue our onward march to growing and transforming the Indian Retail ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians."

"KKR has a proven track record of being a valuable partner to industry-leading franchises and has been committed to India for many years. We look forward to working with KKR's global platform, industry knowledge and operational expertise across our digital services and retail businesses," he added.

Moreover, commenting on the investment, Henry Kravis, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of KKR, said, "We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Reliance Industries through this investment in Reliance Retail Ventures, which is empowering merchants of all sizes and fundamentally changing the retail experience for Indian consumers."

"Reliance Retail's new commerce platform is filling an important need for both consumers and small businesses as more Indian consumers move to shopping online and the company offers tools for Kiranas to be a critical part of the value chain. We are thrilled to support Reliance Retail in its mission to become India's leading omnichannel retailer and ultimately to build a more inclusive Indian retail economy," he added.

According to the release, KKR is making its investment from its Asia private equity funds.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India's largest, fastest-growing and most profitable retail business 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 topped the list of '50 fastest-growing retailers globally between FY 2013-2018' in the Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing 2020 index. Reliance Retail secured the 56th spot this year against the 94th rank the previous year and is the only Indian company to be featured in this list.