Reliance Industries : Silver Lake to Invest $1.02 Billion in Reliance Retail Ventures

By P.R. Venkat

Silver Lake has agreed to invest 75 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) in the retail arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd., the U.S. private-equity firm's second billion-dollar investment in the company.

The investment values Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. at INR4.21 trillion pre-money, Reliance Industries said Wednesday.

Silver Lake's investment in the retail arm will translate into a 1.75% equity stake, the company said.

Earlier this year, Silver Lake invested in Reliance Industries unit Jio Platforms Ltd., joining the list of other foreign companies such as Facebook Inc. that have pumped billions of dollars into the Indian telecommunications and technology titan.

"This marks the second billion dollar investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance Industries subsidiary after the $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year," Reliance Industries said.

Reliance Retail operates India's largest and fastest-growing retail business catering to close to 640 million footfalls across its more than 12,000 stores nationwide.

"The success of JioMart in such a short time span, especially while India, along with the rest of the world, battles the Covid-19 pandemic, is truly unprecedented, and the most exciting growth phase has just begun," said Egon Durban, co-chief executive of Silver Lake.

Reliance Industries is India's largest private-sector company, with net profit of $5.3 billion on consolidated turnover of $87.1 billion for the year ended March.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser to Reliance Retail.

Write to P.R. Venkat at [e-mail]