Singapore’s GIC Pte. and private-equity firm TPG will invest a combined US$1 billion ($1.36 billion) in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail unit, taking total inflows into the business to about US$4.4 billion.
GIC will spend 55.1 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) for a 1.22% stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., while US-based TPG will take 0.41% for 18.4 billion rupees, the Indian company said. The investments will value the business at 4.29 trillion rupees.
Ambani, 63, started selling stakes in his retail business last month, soon after raising more than US$20 billion in exchange for 33% of his technology venture Jio Platforms Ltd., which lured partners including Facebook Inc. and Google. KKR & Co. and General Atlantic are among other investors in Reliance Retail, and the same private-equity funds had also picked up stakes earlier in Jio.
Reliance Retail, a unit of Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Ltd., runs supermarkets, India’s largest consumer electronics chain store, a cash and carry wholesaler, fast-fashion outlets and an online grocery store called JioMart. It reported 1.63 trillion rupees in revenue in the year through March 2020. The unit operates almost 12,000 stores in nearly 7,000 towns.
