NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries, owned by multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani, announced on Saturday it has agreed to acquire the retail and wholesale business and logistics and warehousing business of Future Group in a deal valued at $3.38 billion, including debt.
Future Group’s business has been hit hard by a slowing economy and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Reliance recently attracted investments worth close to $20 billion from backers, including Google and Facebook Inc, while it sets out to make a major foray into India’s largely unorganised retail sector. Reliance’s retail operation already runs close to 12,000 stores, including a cash-and-carry wholesale business, in over 6,700 Indian towns and cities.
Reliance will also invest Rs 16 billion, by way of preferential shares and warrants convertible into equity shares, to pick up a 13.14 per cent stake in Future Enterprises Ltd, which would value the group’s remaining business at $2.87 billion.
In May, Reliance launched JioMart, an online grocery service in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon’s local unit and Walmart’s Flipkart in the huge Indian market. Ambani plans to list Reliance’s digital and retail units over the next five years.