Silver Lake to invest ₹7,500 crore for 1.75% in Reliance Retail

MUMBAI: Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners will invest ₹7,500 crores in the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for a 1.75% stake.

Reliance Retail said in a press statement that the investment values that Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of $ 4.21 trillion.

Post announcement, RIL's shares advanced 1.3% at â‚¹2132 crore on the BSE at 9.30 am.

Silver Lake, the world's largest tech investor, had earlier picked up a 2.08% stake for $ 1.34 billion in Jio Platforms.

RIL had earlier offered the 13 financial and strategic investors of Jio Platforms the option to invest in its Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) unit, according to the Business2Business report.

These investors include Facebook, Google, KKR, Silver Lake, and TPG. They helped RIL raise a total of $ 1.52 trillion in recent months by picking up a combined 33% stake in its digital unit, Jio Platforms.

According to analysts, RIL is lining up these global investors to take on rivals such as Amazon India and Walmart-owned Flipkart in the Indian retail segment.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), operates the largest retail business in India, serving nearly 640 million footfalls in its 12,000 stores nationwide.

Reliance Retailers said in a press statement: "Reliance Retail's vision is to stimulate the Indian retail sector through a holistic strategy serving millions of customers by empowering millions of farmers and MSMEs and working closely with global and local businesses as a preferred partner."

RIL operates its retail business through unit Reliance Retail Ventures, the holding company for Reliance Retail Ltd and Reliance Brands. The latter operates joint ventures with international brands.

Silver Lake is an investor in some of the largest and successful tech companies including Twitter, Airbnb, Alibaba, Dell Technologies, ANT Financials, Twitter, Alphabet's Waymo, and Verily, among others.

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