Reliance Can Sell 9.99% Stake To Amazon! Will Reliance Become World’s Biggest Retail Company?

The most valuable and profitable firm in India, as of recently, Reliance Industries, has attracted over a dozen foreign investors in various of its ventures, since April this year.

The company’s chairman, Mukesh Ambani has now become the fifth richest man in the world, with a net valuation of $75.1 billion.

Not just that, RIL’s shares gained over a percent hitting a new record high of Rs 2,010 per share on the BSE, as recorded on July 22.

Wherever you turn your head to today, you are bound to hear about Reliance Industries or its various different ventures.

Our new reports now have shown that Amazon is looking forward to buy a preferred, strategic stake in RIL, particularly its retail venture.

Amazon to Buy Stake in Reliance?

After securing over $20 billion, by selling 33% stake to over a dozen big shot foreign giants like Facebook, Google, Silver Lake, and General Atlantic, since April this year, the new buzz now is that Amazon is in talks to buy a portion of Reliance’s stakes.

The US e-commerce giant is in talks to buy a 9.9%  stake in RIL’s retail arm, JioMart, as reported on Thursday afternoon.

However, when asked about it to either of the two companies, non of them chose to comment on the report.

Reliance Retail Arm: JioMart

JioMart is the e-commerce venture of Reliance’s retail arm. RIL has invested more than $6.5 billion in its Indian business.

Launched in May 2020 in about 200 cities and towns across India, is gaining a lot of traction and has started to pose as a significant challenger to not just Amazon but also Walmart Inc’s Flipkart.

Earlier this year, Amazon India launched a program to add small local shops on its platform after India went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

Reliance and Amazon’s Close Call on Future Retail

As per local media reports, the two giants, Reliance and Amazon were also involved in acquiring majority stake in Future Retail, which is the country’s second largest retail chain.

 Last year, Amazon acquired a 49% stake in Future coupons, a group entity owned by Future Retail, investing more than $100 million.

This led to Amazon have a 3.58% stake in Future Retail.

Also, under the two companies’ ‘long term business agreement’, Future Retail sells some goods online on Amazon India’s platform.