The investment spree of Reliance Retail continues(read more here), as the company has acquired $857 million (Rs 6,247.5 crores) from Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, in exchange for 1.4% stake in the retail arm of one of India’s most successful corporation.
Mukesh Ambani said about the investment, “I am happy to welcome Mubadala as a valued investor in Reliance Retail Ventures. Mubadala’s investment and guidance will be an invaluable support in the journey of strengthening the core of India’s retail sector.”
Mubadala is just one addition to a growing family of investors that Reliance Retail is onboarding as a part of its investment spree. Yesterday, the company raised $498 million from General Atlantic, parting away with 0.84% stake in return. Before this, General Atlantic had invested $870 million in another Mukesh Ambani venture- Jio Platforms. This was the third such investment, as the retail arm of Mukesh Ambani’s multi-billion conglomerate raised nearly $1Bn from two of the existing Jio Platforms investors — Silver Lake and KKR, in the past three weeks or so.
The trend is becoming more and more clear now, with the 4th investment in Reliance Retail, as Mubadala too had invested $1.2 billion in Jio Platforms earlier this year. Thus, it’s fair to assume that the next investor (because let’s be honest, there will probably be a lot more), will also be from the Jio Platforms portfolio.
This is in line with a report that came out last month, which claimed that Mukesh Ambani is offering investors of Jio Platforms, a chance to invest in the company’s retail arm. Thus, there’s a chance that we might see Facebook or Google invest in Reliance Retail as well.
And while we are dropping names, there’s a chance that Ambani could have offered a 40% stake in the company to Amazon for $20+ billion, which is even greater than the $16 billion sale of Flipkart to Walmart back in 2018.
All this investment will help Reliance Retail fulfill its dream of becoming a more technology driven platform, something that can compete with the likes of Amazon and Flipkart (if there’s no Amazon deal), working with the other Reliance venture JioMart.
