Amazon is reportedly in talks with billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries for picking up 9.9 % stake in Reliance Retail. Amazon needs a preferred, strategic stake in Reliance Retail for JioMart, ET Now reported citing unidentified sources.
The deal, if it goes through, will assist Amazon further expand its footprints in the Indian markets where it already operates an online marketplace.
Reliance Industries (RIL), the country’s most valued firm, has so far raised a complete of Rs 152,055.45 crore in the remaining three months by promoting stake in its digital arm, Jio Platforms. Recently, Google introduced to make investments Rs 33,737 crore in Jio Platforms.
Jio Mart, the e-commerce venture of Reliance’s retail arm, was launched in May and poses a formidable task to Amazon local unit and Walmart Inc’s Flipkart.
Earlier this year, Amazon India launched a program ‘Local stores on Amazon’ to allow small stores and retailers to promote their products online amid nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. It had stated that it will invest Rs 10 crore in launching the application which was in pilot section for the remaining 6 months with 5,000-plus local stores and retailers from throughout 100 tier-1 and tier-2 cities.
Amazon spokeswoman through e mail referred to the company does not comment on speculation, while Reliance did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Share rate of Mukesh Ambani-led RIL on Thursday rose 3.73 % to hit an all-time excessive of Rs 2,078.9 towards previous close of Rs 2,004 on the BSE. The rally in RIL inventory took the market cap of the company to Rs 13.16 lakh crore, a fresh record set by the conglomerate on BSE and NSE. The RIL share has gained 139.55 % from its 52-week low of Rs 867.82 hit on March 23 this year and 20.64 % in the remaining one month.
