Silver Lake Invests INR 7,500 Crore In Reliance Retail The investment from Silver Lake in RRVL came months after it invested $1.35 billion in Jio Platforms earlier this year

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Wednesday announced that it's retail subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) has received an investment of INR 7,500 crore from American global technology investment firm Silver Lake. The investment firm will invest at an exchange for 1.75 per equity stake in RRVL on a diluted basis. The investment values RRVL at a pre-level equity value of INR 4.21 lakh crore.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Reliance Retail and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsels. Latham & Watkins and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co acted as legal counsels for Silver Lake.

The investment from Silver Lake in RRVL comes months after it invested $1.35 billion in Jio Platforms earlier this year.

Commenting on the latest development, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries, said, "I am delighted to extend our relationship with Silver Lake to our transformational efforts of building an inclusive partnership with millions of small merchants while providing value to Indian consumers across the country in the Indian retail sector. We believe technology will be key to bringing the much-needed transformation in this sector so that various constituents of the retail ecosystem can collaborate to build inclusive growth platforms. Silver Lake will be an invaluable partner in implementing our vision for Indian Retail."

Speaking on the investment, Mr. Egon Durban, co-chief executive officer and managing partner of Silver Lake, said, "We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Reliance with this investment. Mukesh Ambani and his team at Reliance have created an outstanding world leader in retail and technology through their courageous vision, commitment to societal benefits, innovation excellence and relentless execution. The success of JioMart in such a short time span, especially while India, along with the rest of the world, battles the COVID-19 pandemic, is truly unprecedented, and the most exciting growth phase has just begun. Reliance's New Commerce strategy could become the disruptor of this decade. We are thrilled to have been invited to partner with Reliance in their mission for Indian Retail."

Currently, RRVL operates around 12,000 retail stores across the country and witnesses close to 640 million footfalls. The company through its strategy is digitizing small and organized merchants and wants to expand the network to two crores of these merchants. The subsidiary to expand its dominance in the retail sector has recently acquired Future Group's business for INR 24,713 crore. That deal will allow Reliance Retail to take over around 1,800 brick and mortar stores of Future Group which includes Big Bazaar, Nilgiris, Central, Brand Factory and FoodHall, among others.