American private equity firm Silver Lake invests Rs 7,500 crore in Reliance Retail for 1.75% stake

Reliance on Tuesday announced that Silver Lake will invest Rs 7,500 crore into its subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) for 1.75% stake. This investment values the retail business of Reliance at Rs 4.21 lakh crore. This marks the second billion dollar investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance Industries subsidiary after the $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms earlier this year.Reliance operates India's largest retail business of onset 12,000 stores nationwide with 640 million footfall. Commenting on the transaction with Silver Lake, Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said the extension of relationship with Silver Lake will add to its 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," said Ambani.Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake, said, 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," Durban said. With more than $60 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a focus on the world’s great tech and tech-enabled opportunities, Silver Lake is the global leader in large-scale technology investing. Its other investments includes Airbnb, Alibaba, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies and Twitter.The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals. 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.

from Economic Times https://bit.ly/2ZiSdTB
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