India’s Reliance Retail is in talks with existing investors including the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia for combined new investments of around $1.5 billion, three sources with direct knowledge of the plan said.
Reliance Retail is India’s largest retailer and is led by Asia’s richest person Mukesh Ambani. The talks with investors are part of an internal target to raise $3.5 billion which the company wants to close by the end September, Reuters has reported. Of that, QIA last month announced a $1 billion investment and KKR & Co this week $250 million.
Singapore’s GIC, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) are looking to invest at least $500 million each in Reliance Retail at a valuation of $100 billion, one of the sources told Reuters.
GIC, ADIA declined to comment, while PIF did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reliance said: “we do not comment on media speculation and rumours”.
It includes foreign partnerships with brands such as Marks and Spencer and competes with Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in one of the world’s biggest markets. When ADIA invested in Reliance Retail in 2020, it said it was part of its strategy of targeting market leading businesses in Asia linked to the region’s consumption-driven growth. Last month Ambani said in a speech that “several marquee global strategic and financial investors have shown strong interest” in his company, but gave no names. In 2019, the billionaire said his group planned to list the retail business in five years.
