India's Reliance says KKR to invest 55.5b rupees in retail arm

[BENGALURU] US private equity firm KKR & Co will invest 55.50 billion rupees (S$1.03 billion) in Reliance Industries' retail arm, giving the unit a pre-money valuation of 4.21 trillion rupees, the Indian conglomerate said on Wednesday.

KKR's investment will translate to a 1.28 per cent stake in Retail Ventures, according to Reliance. Reliance, controlled by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani has been looking to expand rapidly online to take on the likes of Walmart's Flipkart and Amazon.com's Indian arm.

Powered by Reliance's Jio tech platform, the unit owns retail businesses as varied as grocery stores and fashion chains, and operates close to 12,000 stores across India.

Reliance, which has been on a fund-raising spree, had earlier raised US$1.02 billion from US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners for its retail business.

KKR in May invested US$1.5 billion in Reliance's digital business, its biggest investment in Asia, as part of a funding round that saw the Indian company raise more than US$20 billion from investors including Facebook and Alphabet's Google.

KKR will make the investment from its Asia private equity funds.

Morgan Stanley acted as Reliance Retail's financial adviser, while Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India was KKR's financial adviser.

REUTERS